Too Many Swing Bridges

 Tuesday 15th August 2023 at Downholland Cross.

We set off from Litherland after breakfast with Ken and Kate on Daedalus in the lead. The plan was to alternate doing the swing bridges and they did the first bridge next to the mooring. It is only a pedestrian bridge but still has to be opened and closed with all the usual procedures.

As Kate waited for Ken, we went past heading for the next bridge....

... while Daedalus followed on behind. But the proverbial "best laid plans" soon went awry as MM picked up a lump of carpet on her propellor, so we had to stop to remove it while Daedalus went past us and opened bridge two.

This meant that M ended up doing swing bridge three, which was the one which caused us problems when it broke down as M was opening it on our way in to Liverpool. M was rather apprehensive about operating it again but it worked fine this time (big sigh of relief from M!).

Before the next swing bridge we went past the "Last House" in Liverpool. Everything to the right of this house is more houses, everything to the left of this house is open farm fields. Imagine having "The Last House in Liverpool" as your postal address!!!

The next swing bridge was at  Melling, where we had moored on our way into Liverpool. Ken opened this bridge but Daedalus decided not to co-operate, so Kate waved us through.

Ken was therefore stuck on the other side of the canal. Because these manual bridges were originally built during the time of horse drawn boats, the swing arm is usually on the non-towpath side to allow the horse and tow rope unimpeded passage.

Ken assured us that Daedalus would be fine and we did see her go through the bridge and moor up this side.

Later, we got a call from Kate to say that Daedalus did have some problems and they suggested that we should not wait for them.

So we gradually made our way through the next five swing bridges, not M's favourte pastime! This is the last swing bridge of eight today.

This is a farm accommodation bridge and was being crossed by suitably agricultural machinery. M doesn't mind this one quite so much, as it is used mostly by the occasional tractor and cyclist only.

A few miles further on there was a mooring spot next to the Scarisbrick Arms pub. There was a gap that looked just about big enough for MM, so R put her into reverse to back gently into the opening. At this point the engine gave a splutter and almost stopped. Clearly MM had had enough today and refused to go forwards or backwards! Something was on the propellor and we were stranded in the middle of the canal. Robin to the rescue with long pole and he shafted MM into the space, which was only just big enough. Then down the weed hatch for the fourth time today! Lots of weed, lots of plastic bags and rope.

This was the current crop of  plastic bags and other plastic stuff.

The mooring was actually very nice and we were moored on bollards not pins, so a result.

Soon afterwards, Daedalus reappeared; it seems that they had picked up some wire on the propellor, which accounted for the funny noises. Ken and Kate moored up a few boats along and then joined us on MM for a glass of wine. It was so good to spend some time with them and to get to know them a little better. We hope they will keep in touch.

Tomorrow we shall leave here early and travel the three miles into Scarisbrick Marina, where MM is booked for a week. We will take the train home and plan to be back on MM on Wednesday 23rd.

Today: 11 miles, 0 locks and 4.9 hours - plus 8 swing bridges and 4 trips down the weed hatch.

Trip: 148 miles, 72 locks and 80.7 hours.