Another year's cruising gone.

Last week we had a phone call from the C&RT Wigan Office telling us that the temporary fix for the gate on the No1 Rufford Arm lock was underway but it wasn't likely to be completed before the weekend. This was a bit of a downer as we had planned to go up on Sunday and move 'Holderness' down the arm to her winter moorings. However by Friday I was having emails and phone calls saying that the lock would be open for Saturday, so our plans were on again.

Our trip to Burscough went smoothly enough via the motorway system and the East Lancs. Road. When we arrived everything was okay aboard and we soon had the kettle, and the heating on whilst I got everything ready for the move. The day was quite pleasant and with little wind, which would be helpful for our reversing back down to the junction.

The canal is wide beam size so it was easy to swing a naorrowboat through the bridge hole. The Rufford Branch was opened in 1781, but the bridge is dated 1816. I wonder if they had built just a temporary wooden bridge until then. In the distance you can see so canal workers cottages and the corner of the dry dock. The junction is a conservation area and is a very compact little community with the pub too.

This is the before and after shots of the broken heel post. A clever fix that will need a proper job doing in the winter I'm sure. I was a little perplexed by the initial notice of closure when it stated that the damage was sustained by vandalism. It clearly looks like the timber is fairly rotten. Maybe the final straw was somebody hitting the gate with force intentionally or not. I wonder if by calling it vandalism it doesn't count as a stoppage through failure of their equipment, or maybe the cost of repair etc comes out of a different budget for which grants are available. Maybe I'm over thinking it. The good thing is they came up with a good fix quite quickly.

You can see that they have bolted through the gate which has been lifted back to the upright so that it swings properly. The voluntary lock keepers didn't seem to have to put any extra effort in to move the gate so they must have got it just right.

The voluntary lock keepers had been busy on the Saturday, in the pouring rain, as 20+ boats sped down the locks as it was the last day of navigation to cross the Ribble estuary to make for the Lancaster Canal, and several winter moorings I suspect. However I think there had only been a couple other than ourselves on Sunday, and the weather was fine.

The swans were making a good job of providing buoyage to mark the edge of the navigation, and gives the reason why they have long necks, to reach the weed on the bottom!

Once clear of the first set of locks, with a wave and a thank you to the keepers we spotted these colourful beehives. I sign said they were part of the Tree Bees Organisation:- https://www.treebee.org.uk/about/ It seems that they carryout bee removals from swarms that have settled in the wrong places. They charge and use the money to re-home them and help preserve bumble bees and honey bees. They also do this by selling items made from the products of the hives, such as honey wax, creams etc. Their on line shop has a good selection at very reasonable prices and they are based in Burscough.

The canal is full and this makes it look more like a river with weed and reeds encroaching on both sides in places and there is a variety of plants that must be quite a sight in spring and summer.

The landscape is reminiscent of Sunk Islan in Holderness, near Hull. That is flat fertile land with low hills in the distance. The tower with the water tank on and the chimney have the look of a WWII structure to me, but it maybe that they were built at that time to assist in food production from the obviously largely derelict glass houses. That is something else in common with Holderness. (Glass houses that is).

The next lock is called 'German's Lock' so I wonder if the WWII structure could have been a Prisoner of War camp at one time. They were used often as labour on the farms, also in Holderness where we had German and Italian camps in the locality. This lock also shows the variety of paddle gear used at the lock with this blade clough, last seen on the Yorkshire side of the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

 At the next lock, Baldwin's, was the more usual ground paddle gear with the fixed handle. Not quite the rickety wooden boxes of other parts of the Leeds/Liverpool.

Burscough has two railway stations as it has two lines. The line from Burscough Bridge station between Southport and Wigan was passed under between lock 3 and 4, and now we come to the line from Liverpool and Ormskirk to Preston railway that was formed in 1846. It became part of the East Lancs. Railway and then in 1859 became part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. There had been nine deaths following and accident at Burscough Junction Station in 1880. Most of this company's routes are now worked by Northern, and Mersey rail around Liverpool.

The A59 comes close to the canal at the point where you have to navigate March Meadow swing bridge. Like many of the locks they all have anti vandal handcuff locks on them, but most of them are just for show. It seems an unlikely place for people to get up to mischief but the lock keepers assured me that it did happen occasionally. The bridge swung off easily enough.

Once down Rufford Lock, the 7th of the day, we were in sniffing distance of journey's end for this year. I always feel glum on the last day knowing we are ending our cruising for the year. I seem to go slower and slower trying to prolong our time aboard. However as 'time and tide wait for no man' we were soon getting ready to make our entrance into Fettler's Wharf Marina under the white foot bridge on the right. Opposite that entrance is the opening into the St. Mary's Marina.

We soon made our way and moored up alongside the service wharf as we needed fuel to fill up for the winter and leave as little gap for condensation to form as possible. We were met by the owner Richard and Phil to do the honours and welcome us in. I was quite surprised when the tank took 186 litres! As the lower price was 63p it could have been a lot worse. I purchased a couple of bags of Supertherm for £8-50 each for when we come visiting. This is a picture of the marina looking south. It certainly looks like plenty has been spent on doing the place up in the short time under the new ownership. The service area was just about to be knocked down and rebuilt too.

Our winter mooring was to be in the northern section, and we will be next to the green boat in the middle of the picture. Luckily there is just a boat length between the wooden house boat/chalet and the berths and as there was still no wind to speak of we slipped in easily to the mooring. The jetty is 60' long so that made mooring easier and we were helped in by other moorers who all seemed friendly.

Richard gave me a lift back up to the Ship, where I had left the car and we soon had it packed up with the final bits and the boat settled for winter. The solar panels have a good view of the sun and as we are plugged into the mains as well we should remain snug through the winter. We will have to visit occasionally as I have several jobs to do before we are off and running. I am already thinking about where we shall visit next year but before then I will be compiling the cost breakdowns and blogging all the good/bad news on the front, and giving occasional summary blogs about this years adventures. When we add everything up I don't think we will have done as many locks or days aboard as previously, but we may well have done a good number of miles with all the rivers we have been on this year. Thank you for reading and I hope you will watch out for the odd blog over the winter as we get closer to doing it all again next year.