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<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThere might not have been many boats out today, but we did see some hobies having a little race on a lake just across from the canal; their sails brightened up the day nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah did all the lock work today and everything was sopping wet, so she gets a magic beansprout for her hard work. It barely stopped raining all the time we were on the go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Any fans of the “If Carlsberg did… ” advertising campaign would love this boat! Their famous tag line started back in the 70s and is still in use this decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not too far to Liverpool from here – but we’re going via Lancaster so will take us over a month!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every trip we still seem to come across some new contraption devised to (allegedly) make it easier to open paddles \/ gates. This one opens the gate using a curved rack and pinion type arrangement, which seemed to work well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We went past Wigan Pier<\/a> today. No sign of the beach though! At the end there’s an old covered wharf, still in use by a pair of boats. Sarah was ashore trying to find the C&RT offices – which we eventually did, but they were all closed up for the day it seemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact about Wigan – it’s the home of Heinz’s baked bean factory, the largest food factory in Europe, churning out 450 million cans a year of baked beans (plus lots of other stuff too!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n After passing through Wigan, we went past Wigan Athletic’s DW football stadium, and were a little bemused to see two policemen launch a drone and do a quick fly-by of the area. No idea what they were looking for, but they flew the drone pretty high, and far away enough that we lost sight of it entirely. Then the rain got a lot heavier and they quickly got the drone back and hurried to their car!<\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all it the wet and dreary weather is starting to get a bit tedious – here’s what we think of it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each day I check the forecast and it always looks like it’s getting better, so I tell Sarah it’ll be better tomorrow – but it never seems to work out that way. But tomorrow, surely this time, it will be better! The BBC says it will be by the afternoon at least, and for once the Met Office seem to agree with them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We departed promptly at 0930 this morning, as the swing bridge is closed for rush hour between 0800-0930 and we weren’t getting up that early! It seems everyone had the same idea, as we had another boat coming the other way just after us, and then another one came up behind us too. We only … Continue reading Day 33 – Tomorrow’s Forecast Looks Better<\/span> <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n