Very worried boater

I hope that you will not mind me contacting you, but so worried as Easter, especially Good Friday is when we start our first cruise of the year, writes Julian Warne.

A bit of a worry

Moored on the Peak Forest Canal it is a worry as the Macclesfield is closed by a breach that we know will take months to repair, though looking at the picture of it, a good load of concrete would do the job quite quickly instead of weeks 'assessing' the repair before anything is started.  But it means that is closed for us.

We are moored at the Whaley Bridge end of the cut, which means we have the Wood End Lift bridge to contend with that seems to have an habit of failing, one time for weeks on end, so if we manage to get out will we get back?

And then there's the choice of where to go. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is closed at present, and has a very limited number allowed through the tunnel as well as the Loco Bridge between it and the Huddersfield Broad Canal that can't seem to be mended.

A no-go

If we carry on through Manchester we have the choice of the Bridgewater Canal or the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, with the Bridgewater having a breach so a no-go, and who would want to try the Leeds & Liverpool Canal with its endless stoppages? (12 stoppages this year so far—Editor.]

It really is a quandary, for wherever we cruise we will be stopped, and should the stoppages be put right and we are able to carry on, will be stopped again and have to leave our boat somewhere to be vandalised? We do not live on the boat.

We love our boat and look forward all winter to our first cruise, but it is no longer such a delight as in the past, with so many stoppages, and we are really considering giving it up, as the pleasure has gone it being replaced by worry.