Wet Nuggets on Locks

What can we say about yesterday. It Rained! All day it rained. From the moment we got up until the moment we went to bed it rained. It rained big drops, it drizzled. It rained from the north, from the south, from the east and from the west. It rained straight down. It rained horizontally. Did I mention it rained.

Even through the rain the countryside was beautiful and we passed some fantastic houses. The properties below were picked out by Jan as our next home.

Apart from the persistent rain the other irritation of the day was the six boats waiting to go up Minshull Lock. There were 6 boats in front of us when we arrived at the bottom of the first of 2 locks.  We waited until we were third in the queue then Jan went up to help out. She was joined by another lady who was presumed be from the boat in front of us.

Jan: as per yesterday, 3 of the boats in front of TM were hire boats and hardly any of the boats' residents helped and those who did, didn't seem to know what to do. After an hour's waiting we were in the lock. By the time Tilly May was in this first lock there was now another six boats queuing; nine people stood like nuggets on the towpath chatting and one poor lady on the lock doing any work - it turned out she was from the boat behind us and was helping me to get the queue moving quicker so we could get out of the rain.  However, she couldn't move up the lock until a hire boat of 4 lads had come down - they stood on the bank under an umbrella waiting for the paddles to be done for them! I think the lady would have been be there for some time.  Sorry to be a whinge but I do find it frustrating when this is supposed to be team work.

Last weekend was a historic boat rally at Audlem so we expect to see a few old boats today. In fact the first working boat passed us at 8am this morning. They must have left very early to get here for 8am.