Today was one of our late starts at 9am. As soon as we set off, we had the set of 4 Hurleston Locks ahead of us. No lock-keepers yet this morning, so John had to man all of the gates and paddles, while I tried to keep the boat from floating away between each lock. It’s surprising how easy it is to pull a boat this size by hand once the propulsion stops. We usually tie up on a bollard either side of the lock until it is ready to enter or the lock operator jumps back on board.

Today we had nine locks, one hand crank lift bridge and one powered lift bridge. Most of the bridges that carry traffic are tall enough for the boats to pass under. Some of the smaller farm bridges are too low and need to be hand cranked to raise for the boat to pass. Just like the locks, someone hops off to lift the bridge, then hops back on after the boat passes and the bridge is lowered. This canal has one regular road bridge that needs to be lifted. Our first time through, I was walking back and forth with a bewildered look when a nice gentleman stopped his car and told me I needed to raise the bridge with a key. “Where do I get the key?”. “It should be on your boat keys”. “Oh, that’s what that extra key is for!”. Operating this bridge is fun! You turn the key and press the OPEN button. Alarms sound, road barriers drop, traffic stops, and the bridge slowly rises. Once the boat is through, push the CLOSE button and everything happens in reverse. Today I was at the bridge a little early and was able to raise it for a very grateful solo boater. Everything is a bit more work when you don’t have a second skipper on board.

 

We made a stop in the town of Wrenbury, walked around a bit, stocked up on our chocolate, and visited the local church. We think our houses at home are old, but this church was built in 1500, on the site of a former church. Now, that’s old! We had a wander through the graveyard, trying to find the oldest stones. Most were from the 1800’s but there were quite a few that were so worn or damaged to be unreadable. Inside the church was quite lovely. Instead if open pews, there are boxes that seat 5-6 people. There was sign with some bits of church trivia that mentioned the “dog whipper’s box”. That needed a googling – The dog whipper was in charge of keeping the dogs in order and for waking those parishioners who fell asleep during the service.

 

Back to the boat for a short motoring to find our mooring spot for the night. Cell service is very spotty along the canal, but we managed to get a couple of facetime calls in to folks back home. Remember when you’d send a postcard home from your trip only to arrive back home before the postcard was delivered. How times have changed!