Early rain – we waited until things were clear to start moving, but ran the engine for a while before then. A widebeam charity boat (Rose of Parbold) came through so we followed and they did Glovers swing bridge 33 for us both. Pulled in at the Rufford arm junction for water (very slow fill).
Needed to shop, so we moved on half a mile to Purbold, and went to the Tesco. Initially thought it would therefore be best to push on to Liverpool rather than go up the arm, but a phone call indicated we would need to email an application form in order to travel in on Sunday. There wasn't time, so we decided to go up the Rufford arm this weekend, and send in an application to go to Liverpool on Wednesday.
This meant going through two swing bridges (32 and 31) to wind, and then returning through them, but 32 was faulty on our return, and we had to ring engineering. They fixed it after about an hour, but it was late so we tied up just after going through.
3.3 miles, 0 locks, 5 swing bridges, 5.5 hours engine
