Company

Stagecoach Company bus service 125 runs every 10 minutes from Chorley to Adlington. This morning we'd moved the boat a kilometre up the canal and walked down to B&Q. Then, seeing the bus coming round the corner we ran to catch it – good exercise, though it wouldn't have been long till the next one. We wanted to get the visit to Adlington Post Office done and dusted. We were there to pick up a package – some washers I need to help secure the sound insulation I've bought for Erin Mae's cruiser stern. Coming out of the Post Office we saw the return bus coming, and ran to catch that as well. My best beloved's replacement knee was doing really well! Overall this meant it was only a couple of hours before we were back at the boat.

After an early lunch we set out again, heading for the flight of seven locks at Johnson's Hill. As we came to the first we found NB Firefox going in ahead of us, so we were able to share the flight with Peter and Janet.

It's much easier in these wide locks if there are two of you. You don't bump around in the same way with the currents from the water flowing in.

 The locks in this flight are close together.

Peter and I steered the boats side by side between the locks – first time either of us had done this. It was relatively straightforward – and we used the opportunity to keep on chatting!

The crack continued over a cuppa on board Firefox once we'd tied up.

Peter is a wood-turner by trade, and is fitting out the boat himself – some very nice work. There's an unusual feature in that the cratch is constructed as a living area.

So – very good to meet you, guys, and hope everything goes well as you push on up ahead of us.