Cruise was completely without incident

READING your site gives the impression that a cruise is very hit and miss, but we did not find it so, writes Andrew Fenton.

I don't know if you want to hear this, but our cruise along the whole of the Trent & Mersey Canal in September was completely without incident.

Dispensed with face masks

We took precautions when we met others at locks but we soon discovered that other boaters did not crowd you but kept a distance, so we soon dispensed with the face masks as had other people we met on our journey.

Perhaps I should mention that we are owners, having been boating for eight years now, but except for an occasional stiff paddle and two not working, none of which caused any problems for us, we had an uneventful holiday.  We had booked the Harecastle Tunnel in advance and as we had time to spare also the Anderton Lift for a little trip up up river with both giving no worries whatsoever. 

Facilities okay

We found the facilities to be okay and managed water and a pump-out also without difficulty, the only complaint being that the refuse disposal places were overflowing with rubbish, but perhaps this was Biffa's problem as I saw they were their bins.

After the long lockdown we found the canal was more busy then usual for a September, but the feeling was that boaters were glad to be on the canal as everyone we met seemed to be in good spirits and enjoying their cruises as were we.

Three weeks without incident

As I mentioned, the whole cruise of three weeks was without incident and mooring out of towns, as like I believe your good-selves, we have a dog on board, we had no problems with finding moorings and no disturbances with people running engines.

The weather was kind too, so all in all, though perhaps unexpected, we had one of the best September cruises ever, notwithstanding all the doom and gloom.