Safely moored in Saint Mary's Marina

At the end of the Rufford arm, not too clear as I had to zoom in.

Well we had a lovely day with Julia and Ralf and got all our washing done before moving on from Maghull on Thursday well over a week ago now. We made gradual progress with a stop at Scarisbrick Marina as we had used our last shovel full of coal!  Not something you want to run out of this time of year.  We had to pick our mooring places carefully as the TV reception is very varied in this area and Strictly was still on!

On Tuesday, a week ago we finally arrived in Burscough.  There is a Tesco and we also found another row of out of town shops with Peacocks, B and M amongst

Looking the other way up the arm towards Rufford.  We went this way on Sunday

others.  It was a 40 minute walk and we had planned to get the bus back but as they were only 1 an hour we walked back arriving at the same time as the bus!
As we had several days to wait for the canal to re-open on Friday we got the train to Preston.  Quite a big town, managed to finish my Christmas shopping!  After Saturdays storm, Sunday was a lovely day and we set off on the last leg of trip into the marina at Rufford.  A short cruise brought us to the arm.

Bridge at Lock 7, you can just the the marina where we are now moored.

First off is a swing bridge which I couldn't move it so Paul had to get off and lend a hand!
All went fairly well then for the next 5 locks.  Then we arrived at lock 6.  It took us about and hour to get through as the bottom gate was leaking so much the water was going out quicker than it was coming in.  This meant that the water in the lock didn't rise enough to make the water levels equal to open the gates.
Eventually the water above the lock had dropped enough that we managed to get the gate open and get through.


Above is lock 7 which we came through yesterday, St Mary's Marina is just visible through the bridge.  We are now moored there.  We have a 3 month mooring and Falcon will stay here for Christmas.  We collect a hire car tomorrow and will be heading south to catch up with as many of you as we can.
So to all of you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

A week in Liverpool

At the station with Dawn, Dave and a new friend!  Sadly he is no longer with us.

A short picture diary of our week in Liverpool!

Clipper leaving the docks.

The Liverbirds!

It was lovely to share the time with friends and family.  Our second visit was every bit as good as our first.  We did the ferry which we hadn't done last time.  We were very luck as whilst we were on board the sun came out and we had a lovely trip.

We caught the hop on hop off bus again, but this time we got off at different points.

As well as the anglican cathedral we also visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral as well.  It was much simpler.  Unfortunately we didn't get there in time to visit the crypt underneath.

One morning as we were leaving the docks this clipper was on the move and we watched her turn and go out on to the Mersey.  We found it quite exciting.  Maybe Gill and Alison were less thrilled!

One of the places we were told on the bus to visit is the gents toilets in the Philharmonic Diner.  Last time we didn't make it but this time we went there for a drink, then Alison and I waited ages outside for a gentleman to come out, only to find it was Paul and he was the only one in there!  You can see below how ornate it was.

View from the ferry cross the Mersey

Gents toilet at the Philomarnic Diner

The final night of the 4 of us together we went to see Star Wars in the Ecco Arena.  With the live music it was wonderful.

We finally left Liverpool on Friday, Thursday was too windy!

We spent the weekend at Litherlands and on Monday we arrived here in Maghull.

Yesterday friends Julia and Ralf from Omega, who we met in Dewsbury, came to see us, driving nearly 2 hours to get here!  They are about to sell their house and move on the their boat!  So we went out to lunch and had a good old natter!

This afternoon we are off to the laundrette.

We now have about 10 miles of canal, if we don't do any locks, to move up and down until 14th December as we are booked into St Marys Marina at Rufford.  This is where Falcon will be staying when we travel to Plymouth for Christmas.

Original Start Wars with orchestra.

Our mooring for a week.