08/28/2006

Penny’s entry – Monday, 28th August

Today has been something of a non-day. We stayed in Aspley Marina until 8.30pm. The morning was spent finishing off the laundry and generally sorting things out. Then we caught up with writing all the diary pages we’d had to miss and downloading photos - we worked in shifts once again! The marina has broadband and it was blissful to be connected instantly and to be able to stay connected without the pages freezing. Sometimes we’ve spent an hour or two just trying to get T-Mobile to connect and stay connected – it’s a useless system!!

While one of us was working, the other shopped at a massive Sainsbury, filled up with water, talked to the man in the chandlers about problems with the boat, had coffee in the pub a few feet away from us and had supper. Finally we finished and decided to get through Turnbridge Lifting Bridge (Locomotive Lift Bridge) tonight. This bridge is right in the centre and very near to Aspley Marina. It was built in 1865 and it now has a hydraulic action to vertically lift it after the gates have been closed manually across the road. It was exciting to operate, particularly when I heard a police siren very close by and wondered if they would need to cross the bridge. They didn’t! We continued on our way in the dark and moored up just before the first lock. It doesn’t feel terribly safe as there are no other boats here and we are in the wilder outskirts of the city, but I’m sure we will wake up in one piece in the morning!

We have about fourteen hours of cruising left to reach the mooring in Hebden Bridge. We will make it by Wednesday, as planned, but a little later than we originally hoped.