Granny Buttons

Ladders and snakes

Golly, I don't recommend it for nervous boat owners. Granny Buttons was craned out at 2pm at Moss Bridge (Bridge 35) on the Leeds & Liverpool canal, and was back in the water at White Bear Marina, Adlington, 12 miles and an hour later. And safely I think - although there's a scuffing on the paintwork I don't remember this morning. I followed the flatbed truck through the winding Lancashire lanes, and it touched 50mph at times. It was weird watching my boat from immediately behind, with the rudder and ram's head waving idly at me.

It all felt like a giant upside-down game of snakes and ladders. I went past White Bear, and down the formidable Wigan 21, the hard way just a month ago. In an hour I've slid back up the ladder again, barely realising it.

There's been talk on uk.rec.waterways about the straps and cradle BW used, and whether it squeezes and compresses the boat's shell. I've forgotten what was used (and will have to await the pictures to remind me) but I have little but praise for Vaughan and his serfs. They were efficient and hard-working. Vaughan was friendly and very relaxing, and put up with my panics most calmly. Should I have expected the driver to have taken the route a little more slowly?

The big weekend.

I'm told the lifting is taking place at Bridge 35 (Moss Bridge) near Burscough. But I can't seem to contact White Bear Marina. Left a couple of messages. It's going to be a bit unnerving seeing one's precious boat lifted out of the water and onto a flatbed truck for the first time.

Plan is to take it back to White Bear Marina. This is something like a giant game of snakes and ladders, only in reverse. I worked hard to get down the vandal-prone Wigan lock flight a month ago; now in one swoop my boat will slide up the ladder and I'll be two full days sailing further away from Manchester than when I started!

Granny Buttons starts here

I'm starting a blog for Granny Buttons. I'll struggle a bit, I hope you bear with me. Granny Buttons came with me over the Pennines from Leeds during my summer holiday and I left her at the MMBC at Lydiate, near Maghull, near Liverpool. The club is very kind, easygoing and friendly, and plays host to Ken Fairhurst, responsible for one of the Canal Sorority's leading webrings. I really hadn't realised that when I arrived in good complacency on July 10th, but I was extremely grateful ten days later...

Now she's trapped by a breach in the canal near Parbold. To get back to the full canal system, I might be able to get her lifted by British Waterways this coming Monday. Oddly enough, the tricky bit is not getting her lifted onto a truck, and freighted up to White Bear Marina, but arranging the time off from work. We shall see if it can be arranged with Tim...