25/05/08 The plan was to reach Wheelock today and we made it in spite of the strong winds coming across the starboard stern quarter for most of the day especially at locks. The first of the Church Lawton locks was very slow due to queuing and at Thurwell lock we had to shift a family of swans with new signets out before we could empty it to descend. I don’t think that the swans minded much but the local lady who “doesn’t like visitors” (and we were visitors) kept saying that we were going to crush them. Just after we had all arrived it started raining which says a lot for the local forecaster at Kidsgrove who said it was going to be a nice day. I dread to think what tomorrow will be like as he said it would be better than Sunday. 

24/05/08 Today’s run was from the bottom of Bosley locks, on the Macclesfield canal, to the BW yard at Red Bull on the Trent & Mersey canal. There was a stiff breeze which gave our colleagues coming down the locks lots of problems. We had it on our stern so we did not notice it much. Lots more boats around today, with the water getting cloudier, not clear like yesterday. Saw my first definitely recognised tree sparrow by the Red Bull aqueduct.

Hall Green stop lock