We learn Something New.

Sunday 21st October 2012.
Kings Bromley Marina.

We had arranged to call in at Barton Marina this morning for coffee with friends Michael and Val Lee on their boat Thistle, it's only 15 minutes by car from Kings Bromley.

Like us, they choose to cruise the waterways in spring, summer and autumn but moor in a Marina during the winter, they've been wintering at Barton for a few years now.

Michael and Val at Barton Turns for the winter.

This summer they cruised to the new mooring facilities in the re-developed Salthouse dock area of Liverpool, they were certainly impressed by the place, the moorings are free and electric hook up is available.

They used an interesting route to get there, Ellesmere Port, onto the Manchester Ship Canal, then the River Weaver returning to the canal system via the Anderton Lift.

But disaster struck on the return journey travelling back along the Trent and Mersey Canal, at one of the locks in the Newcastle under Lyme area Vals foot went down a hole on the towpath causing a serious looking injury to her leg, when Micheal saw it he immediately dialled 999, the only location he could give the emergency services apart from the general area was the canal bridge number close to where they were, the paramedics arrived within eight minutes, and whisked Val off to hospital, at first they thought her leg was broken it but an Xray revealed it was very badly sprained.

The reason the ambulance got there so quickly with just a bridge number for guidance is that the emergency services have a database which ties bridge numbers to post codes, I hadn't heard of this before and find it very re-assuring, whether this is the case across the country or just in Staffordshire I don't know.

The hospital view boaters passing through the area as Transient so wouldn't supply Val with crutches or a walking stick for fear of them not being returned, which is a reasonable assumption but a bit inconvenient if you've damaged your leg, a real Catch 22 situation.