Gurnett - Dane Aqueduct - 12 locks, 2 swing bridges, 5 miles, 4 1/2hours

We set off at just after 7:15, a bit early for a Sunday morning, but there was crucial game today. Sunderland vs Cardiff, with a 12:00 kick off.  A couple of weeks ago I had resigned myself to championship football, but then we had got the draw against Man City and beat Chelsea, so now there was hope -again!!!

It was another gorgeous morning, before tackling the Bosley flight there were two swing bridges to get through.  One of which had been a nightmare on the way up, you have to stop the traffic and last time I had been shouted by motorists and boaters alike - motorists wanting me to close the bridge and boaters wanting me to keep it open - so I was hopeful that as we were so early there would be no traffic and no other boats.  As we arrived there was a boat coming the other way, but thankfully that was the only boat and there was no traffic, so no one shouted at me today!!

As we got to the flight of 12 locks, there was unfortunately a boat in front going the same way as us which meant that I was going to have to turn the locks, not good when you are in a hurry, but luckily there were 4 of them on the boat and they cracked the locks for us, which was great and made life so much easier for us.

I did have one blonde moment, having opened one of the slackers at the top end of the lock I needed to walk to the bottom cross over and to the other side and open the other top slacker, instead I walked to the bottom and started to open the bottom slacker - doh!!!!  Luckily I realised before I had fully opened it, aided by some frantic shouts from Rodney.

We made excellent time and moored up just passed the bottom lock.

Another beautiful spot.

We moored up at 11:30, just in time to get ready for the big match.  What a result Sunderland 4 - Cardiff 0 - we just might survive (fingers crossed) :-).

We had a lovely afternoon, enjoying the spring sunshine and the great views.