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Well with lunch over it was the start of the descent. John went ahead a bit to set the locks, whilst Pauline tidied up. This worked for water levels, but leaving the top gates open and ready was near impossible with the wind blowing them closed. Still, down we were going.

Top lock @ Barrowford, Betty in the background.

Now it got really windy and the rain kept coming. We must have been mad, but we kept going. The coats we had eventually let the rain in and we were getting miserable (but being on Betty helped us overcome that!). There was water dripping (no, running) off my cap.

We made it through all that and found reasonable shelter at a good mooring outside Barden Mill Shop.

4 hours cruising time, 7 locks and only 8 miles done. We’d had enough for the day !

21^st September 2004

We tried lighting the stove and central heating this morning. Bellowing smoke caused the smoke alarm to go off continuously (again) and we gave up. (Once English instructions were obtained when we were back home, learning how to set the baffle plate to prevent excessive draught helped on this one!)

Moored outside a mill shop we had to go in. Cooked breakfast and new coats/hats/gloves were our good buys today. That saw us actually departing at 12 noon!

It was still unbelievably windy and this was really making it difficult going, but at least today the rain abated.

Start of Burnley Embankment (before it became very exposed and VERY windy)

Crossing Burnley Embankment in this very high wind was an experience. I remember having the throttle down further than we had ever had on the river, never mind on the canal, and we didn’t seem to be moving much! Also as it was a partial cross wind we were also steering into the wind, with Betty at some 30° to the straight (I kid you not, it really was that bad) and there was little we could do but soldier on. At least the new coats, hats & gloves were working well.

John in new coat and hat.

Ploughing on (the water really did look that rough!) soon brought us round the corner to Gannow Tunnel. Much shorter than Foulridge but it’s Pauline’s turn to steer through a tunnel (see we really do share it).

Setting off into Gannow Tunnel.

Pauline in new coat and matching hat. That’ll probably be new housing behind by this time next year.

Soon after we reached the halfway point of the Leeds & Liverpool canal. This felt to be quite an achievement. So much so that Pauline took rather a lot of pictures of the marker – here’s just a few.

Leeds & Liverpool half way marker (not sure where our halfway point is though).

Where we have come from!

And the direction, if not place, that we’re headed.

We now continued battling on along the long level pound, winding along, over and under the M65 for a few miles getting us to the top of Blackburn locks.

Cruising past Granada studios near Blackburn (check the cover of your Nicholson guide!).