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.