I have fond memories of visiting Blackpool as a child, and of all things eating cockles with my dad (I think you’d get done for child abuse if you did that now!) Seeing as we’re only half an hour away, we thought we’d have a day trip out.

We took the lift up the Blackpool Tower, we had the pleasure (pleasure beach…get it?!) of the 4D cinema experience wearing 3D glasses while we waited.

At the top, the 360 degree views were incredible, it was a shame it was such a cloudy day, on a clear day you can see out to the Isle of Man. Toby stepped out on to the 5cm thick glass viewing platform, I wasn’t so brave.

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Then it was to level three to see the Tower Ballroom. The wurlitzer music filled the room, with a waltz and a tango. Sadly not quite up to Strictly standards, but then I’m guessing the average age of the dancers was probably in the 80s.

The trams are a mix between old and new, It was a shame we were too early for the Illuminations.

Fish and Chips at Harry Ramsdens (for those concerned about my weight loss, I stuck to the roast loin of cod and risotto)

We then took on the challenge of the Escape Room. It’s just like the crystal maze, with the four of us shut in a room for an hour. You have to figure out the clues to win the six orbs. We managed five, the ‘executioner’ played a wonderful role staying in charater the whole time. I fear this wont be the last we’ll be doing of those, as Toby loved it.

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We left our pleasant mooring just after Rakes Head Bridge, near Hest Bank just before 9 am this morning with a well researched plan to meet up with Sarah near Borwick Hall where the guide showed some good moorings.  Unfortunately, as we all know, the best laid plans ….ugh!  The indicated moorings were fine if you had a draft of only a few inches or a very sloping side.  Not much cop however for a narrow boat.  After several attempts we were forced to give up.  Unfortunately the visitor mooring as Tewitfield were no better.  We ended up on the mooring for the services but as far back as we could possibly get so another boat could get in and use the facilities.  Not a choice we would ever normally make.  The other downside was that this mooring is only about 25 metres from the M6.  We are however within inches of the furthest possible point of navigation.

The journey to get here was fairly uneventful and unspectacular so we have a great paucity of pictures.  We filled up with water at Carnforth where in spite of the door clearly showing a pumpout symbol there is NO pumpout.  The sides of the canal are very shallow in places and the sharp left hand bend (travelling north) just before Borwick could be particularly tricky.

After we had moored and met Sarah we went for a walk about and discovered an interesting local farm shop, wine store, butchers general provisions, plants, chocolates just opposite the Longlands Hotel.

We walked along the towpath to have a look at the old disused locks leading to Kendal and we were surprised to see how much water is flowing down and must be running past Oliver.

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The Ramblingsheep has rambled on for several days and is now signing off and leaving future blogs to Toby and Sarah. Thank you for viewing.

We awoke this morning to grey skies and rather chilly temperatures leaving our mooring at 9:30.  As we made our way towards Hest Bank the clouds cleared, the sun came out and the day warmed up more than a little.  By the time we arrived it was distinctly hot.

We hardly saw any boats until we reached the Lune Aqueduct.  We decided to stop so we could walk down and take some pictures from below and two narrow boats appeared from the opposite direction.  They also decided to stop so we had quite a gathering all moored along the aqueduct.
From above:

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From below:

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We took what appeared to be the last available spot before Hest Bank as there was a long line of boats in front of us.  A gentleman from Cala Basa  appeared and asked if we knew anything about engines.  Our sketchy knowledge was somewhat better than his. We concluded that his starter motor was not engaging and there was not much we could do to help.  He called his rescue company who came to a similar conclusion.  Unfortunately a new starter solenoid was needed so they were stuck with a two or three day wait.

We decided to do a bit of fishing. Peter caught a few tiddlers but Romy hit the big time and had a great struggle to land her fish even bending the net in the effort.

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We walked, taking the shortest possible route, to the coast, followed by a stroll along the shore line to Happy Mount Park and then, but only after ice creams, took the circular route back to Oliver.

Romy made an excellent job of cooking gammon steaks for dinner having decided that the fish was far too big for just three of us!

Today is the longest day with 16 hours and 38 minutes of daylight but it is our shortest journey covering a mere 5 miles

We left our extremely pleasant and tranquil overnight mooring at around 9 am and headed at a very leisurely pace towards Lancaster.  It was again a beautiful bright morning but very chilly.

We only encountered three boats on the journey which lasted for only 1 hour and 45 minutes but was sufficient to get the batteries up to 99%.

Just before we set off from the mooring we were surprised to see a boat passing us with the driver standing on the seat, peering over the pram hood and steering through the bridge using his foot on the tiller.  It’s a shame we were too late to get a picture!

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The journey was nicely varied with some open countryside and some quite deep cuttings with overhanging trees.

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We had decided that Lancaster Castle would be our first tourist attraction but we did stop on route for coffee and cake at the Print Room and very good it was too.  The Castle can only be visited as part of a guided tour.  This proved to be very interesting and entertaining with James being a very engaging guide.  It was a shame that much of the castle was closed to visitors and photography was prohibited.

We then caught a bus and visited Williamson Park as Romy was determined to visit the Butterfly House.  A wedding with two brides was taking place at Ashton Memorial so we could only see this from the outside at first but we were able to enter the tower after loosing about three pound each (just sweat) in the butterfly house where we saw some lovely specimens. The view from the tower was quite stunning.

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A few shots from the Butterfly House

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One even sat on Romy’s hand

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Another bus journey took us back to the town centre where did a bit of shopping at M&S before heading back to Oliver. On route we booked a table at the Water Witch for our evening meal.  This turned out to be excellent and very good value.

Last night the wind became a lot stronger and we started moving on and off the harbour wall with an irregular but persistent banging that would waken anyone.  At 2:45 we put the larger rubber fenders in to no avail so at 3 am we were up again and the larger wheelbarrow tyres came into play.  Thank goodness they did the job perfectly and we were able to get back to sleep.

In the morning Toby bravely phoned the Marina office to make sure that they sold cards that could be used for the pumpout at Galgate. They did so he walked round and bought two.  Just after he returned Colin and Jane set off and we made a quick decision and joined them for the locks back to the top of the Glasson Branch.  This required lots of power and a fairly sharp angle across the harbour to counter the strong wind.  The waves were worse than than the little ones we encountered on the Ribble.

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Toby was on the helm today and Peter and Romy on lock duty.  Romy got plenty of exercise walking between all the locks.  She behaved herself today and kept her feet firmly on the ground.

Toby demonstrated his consummate helming skills in making a lovely turn from the Glasson Branch into the Lancaster Canal.

We stopped and filled up with water at the first water point while we had lunch and then motored up to Galgate.  The self service pumpout was very convenient and easy to use.  Fuel was available at £1.15 per litre.

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It was another dry day with quite a lot of sunshine but a cold wind that was really noticeable when we were out of the sun.

We moored in a very pleasant spot just before Bridge 90 where there was a reasonable depth of water.  Efforts to moor further back came to naught as the water at the edges was too shallow inspire of this being shown as good mooring in the guide.

Toby then set about the next part of the engine service.  Everything was completed except for the removal of that dastardly diesel filter.  Peter phoned Beta Marine and chatted with Wayne who was most helpful.  He sent a couple of videos and even removed a filter from one of their new engines.  He told us that this was not easy and he had to use a belt even with the filter bracket held in a vice in their workshop.  Further efforts (ensuring that we were trying to undo it in the correct direction!) still failed to shift it.  Another new tool has been ordered.

We started the day with a walk into Garstang to visit a car care shop that had a variety of tools that should enable us to get the diesel filter off.  To be on the safe side we bought two different models.  Watch this space!

We departed at 10:50 and almost immediately crossed the Wyre Aqueduct.  We made quite slow progress as there were so many boats moored along the canal.  You may have guessed after yesterday but many of them were once again yoghurt pots.

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Our plan was to get to Glasson Basin and spend the night there.  Peter did a fine job making the tight turn into the Glasson Branch just after 14:00 but we had to wait for the lock to be filled as a boat had just gone down.  We were assisted in this by some CRT staff who were there for engineering works.  Graham and Diane then kindly waited for us at the next lock and we completed the flight with them.

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The locks have an unusual paddle arrangement with a door that slides across the gate opening.  This is operated by a rack and pinion which has a handle permanently attached so no windlass is needed.

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It has to be mentioned that one of the crew, as obstinate as Theresa May, was determined to open one of these paddles in spite of not being able to reach the handle from the ground. Adopting a stance reminiscent of a mountain goat, a rather dangerous practice, luckily resulted in the paddle being opened without said member falling off.  We won’t mention the time this took but leave you to judge the advisability of such an approach.

Arriving in the Basin we spotted Colin and Jane, the rescuers of Peter’s camera last year, on “Itledoo4me”.  It was a very happy coincidence that gave Peter a chance to thank them personally.

The CRT signs in the Basin could be better. One sign, a bit old and faded, says Permanent Moorings and a newer plan of the Basin shows that the same area is for Visitor Moorings.

This morning Toby decided to start the 750 hour engine service.  The oil filter was changed in a jiffy and all went well until the diesel fuel filter refused to budge.  It was extremely stubborn resisting everything, including Peter’s previously irresistible device fabricated in the refinery workshops.  Leaving this for a future day Toby changed the air filter and then the engine oil.

We eventually set off at 11:15.  We called in Moon Bridge Marina by Bridge 36 in the hope of buying a “gripper” for the filter but the chandlery was set up to support the armada of yoghurt pots moored there.  The “store” was non existent and they said they had very little passing traffic.

In fact our impression was that this is the land of the yoghurt pot.  Most of them were moored in marinas or along the banks but the majority of boats actually moving were narrow boats – strange.

We stopped briefly at Bilsborrow, contemplated our plans for the rest of the day and opted to carry on to Garstang.  

We also had a brief stop just after Bridge 49 for the Spar Shop attached to a Shell Petrol station.  This turned out to have a rather poor supply of fresh fruit and vegetables.  We were however able to replenish our supply of milk.

The canal was very varied today.  The first section was what we might have expected on any canal but after a while it became quite a bit wider than we had anticipated.  There were stretches where the edges were quite overgrown with reeds, yellow iris and large clumps of cow parsley.  There were however many opportunities for mooring.

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We passed one maintenance barge and a dredger but there were not many signs of work actually being carried out.

We saw several herons and were thankful for digital photography in which wasted shots don’t come at too high a price.  Our special duck today, not quite as special perhaps as the pompom ducks, was a bleached mallard?

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The weather was much better than the forecast suggested and it was bright and sunny for most of the day though a touch chilly when the sun did hide behind the clouds.

We are now positioned nicely for a pub for dinner, some good shops and a convenient place to leave tomorrow for Glasson Dock.