We woke up to blue skies and sunshine, time to get the shorts on and the legs out (albiet pasty white ones). We’d just cast off, I assumed we had a sharp right hand bend as I could see a red boat on the non towpath side. It was only as we got closer, the red boat called snail had come loose on the stern line and was across the canal. Two other boaters helped me bring it alongside with one of the chaps volunteering to walk along the very narrow gunnel – I wasn’t going to say no.

The views out to Morecombe bay were glorious, it’s not often you get see the sand and the sea while on the canal. In the distance is The Lake District.

We’ve not seen many swans, on this occasion we were trying to distract them from the passing dog and owner.

We moored up at 10.45. More washing for me, and Toby worked on the splice for the tube fenders on the side of the boat – why he has to use the chopping board I do not know!

We are moored at Hest Bank, and apparently on a famous mooring, as this is where Pru and Timmy moored on their visit.

We walked down to the Bay at low tide. It’s hard to capture the sheer scale of the sands, how flat, and far-out they reach. We stopped by at the cafe on our way back for ice creams.

We went back at high tide and tried to take a photo at the same location to see the difference. Sadly it’s a low high tide today, so not really the effect we were hoping for!

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I managed to spill tea on my shorts, Toby (like his father!!) had left his trousers out, so I thought I’d see if I could get them on and I can – something known as an NSV……a non-scale victory!

We had a feta, bean and sweetcorn salad for tea, Toby had fun feeding the crumbs to the ducks, they became quite familiar and nibbled his hand, although I’m not sure how much you can nibble when you’re all beak and no teeth.

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