Winter Window 2019

Monday 30^th December

Sunset at the marina before we set off

Cormorant at the marina

Last year, in order to get Eileen to the Navigation Narrowboat Company in Nantwich we were forced to take her over during a brief window of time between the opening of the Middlewich breach a few days before Christmas, and the closing of the canals in several places on the 2^nd January. Although we had no choice, in the event we enjoyed it so much, especially New Year’s Eve on board, that we decided to do the same again. We have some work planned on her, so at some point we needed to get her over to Nantwich. There is no breach this time, of course, and there seem to be far fewer stoppages generally on our route, so there was no real constraint on when we moved her. Even so we decided to plan the trip so we were on board on New Year’s Eve, and furthermore well out in the country so that the dogs wouldn’t be disturbed by fireworks.

Winter sunshine on the Trent and Mersey

Moored at Bartington

As we were under no time pressure we decided to take it easy on the first day. I brought Eileen up to Keckwick and we loaded up, then set off at about two, so we could get through the tunnel at two thirty. That meant that we had about an hour of daylight on the other side, and we cruised just past Bartington before mooring at a nice spot on clips. On the way we passed a boat with a nice paint job, called Dark Side of the Moon – we would be encountering her again on the journey.

  

TODAY: 2:30 HOURS. 7.9 MILES. 1 LOCK.

Tuesday 31^st December

We made a leisurely start and reached the Saltersford tunnel for 11:30. However we discovered that the circuit for the pump on the toilet was not working, presumably a fuse gone. Loulie found a bag of spare fuses behind the electrical panel, but we still did not know where the actual fuses were. Eventually we figured out that they could be found by removing the illuminated plastic strips on the front of the panel, and once we had found them it was the work of a moment to replace the correct fuse, and all was working again.

The crew below decks

In the pool before Barnton Tunnel

Emerging from the south end of Barnton Tunnel

We did this repair in the pool between the Saltersford and Barnton tunnels, and then we pressed on again to Anderton. Here we stopped on the holding moorings for the boat lift – as this is closed for the winter we were confident that no-one would be bothered if we tied up there for a couple of hours. We took the dogs (apart from Ruby) for a long walk down into the country park towards Marbury. It is great walking – mostly wooded with lots of slopes and little valleys with streams running down to the Witton Brook and eventually to the Weaver. It was a fine day, if cold, and we met a lot of other walkers, mostly with dogs. Ours had a whale of a time, and were nicely tired when we got back up to Eileen.

The chemical reaction that made Northwich famous

At this time of year the cruising day is strictly limited, and you need to be moored by four or soon after, so we pressed on through Marston and Wincham. Just beyond Wincham you pass right through the Lostock Works of Tata Chemicals, previously ICI (and Brunner Mond before that). Since our last visit they have erected a footbridge with decorations symbolic of the history of the works, including a chemical equation. This represents the decomposition of brine (salt and water) into chlorine, hydrogen and caustic soda - the basis of the chemical industry that made Northwich a significant industrial centre, beyond its ancient history as a salt town. 

At Broken Cross we passed a moored boat called Constanze, which I thought belonged to a couple who put out a vlog under the title Floating Our Boat, but we couldn’t see anyone around, and we couldn’t afford the time to stop to find out. Later I discovered that it was indeed theirs, but that they had been away on a trip down south and the boat was empty. We went on and reached the spot we had been aiming at, a mooring near Bostock Green, nearly opposite a wide area of shallows.

Moored by the wide at Bostock Green

We were only just around the corner from a new marina, Oakwood Marina, and we were a little concerned that they might have some sort of fireworks display. As it turned out they did, but it was quite short and didn’t really trouble the dogs at all. At home we could guarantee a variety of displays all around us, and going on for a long time – Mabel is particularly unhappy with loud noises, and Bridget and Ruby are not keen. So we were able to see the New Year in with a glass or two of bubbly, and five happy dogs.

TODAY: 3:00 HOURS. 10.0 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 5:30 HOURS. 17.9 MILES. 1 LOCK.

Wednesday 1^st January

Today we went through Middlewich and its locks. We started out around eleven, and cruised up just past Bramble Cuttings, where Loulie got off with the dogs and walked on most of the way to Middlewich, getting back aboard just before the aqueduct over the Dane. We did Big Lock and then stopped to take on water in the centre, and did a bit of shopping. We pulled away from the water point just before another boat, Dark Side of the Moon, appeared behind us, which meant that we found the locks in the three lock flight set in our favour, while they had to wait for them to fill after our passage.

Loulie had been navigating through the locks, and she stayed in place and carefully made the sharp right hand turn into the Wardle lock entrance, the start of the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union canal. For historic reasons this is actually the Wardle Canal, the shortest canal in the country at 154 feet long – it is just the one lock and the approach to it, and it was put there by the Trent and Mersey canal company to give them commercial control when the Branch was built to connect the T&M to the Shropshire.

When we turned in we found that there was already a boat there, Otter, preparing to go up. It looked like a man on his own, and I went forward to help him – in fact it turned out that his wife was also aboard, but because of a disability affecting her arms she could do very little of the work. I helped them go through, but as they came out they realised that they had something around their prop, and pulled over a little way further down.

I emptied the lock – there was no-one going down – and Loulie brought Eileen in. As we were working through, Dark Side of the Moon came under the bridge behind us, and the man came up to help us. We had a bit of a chat – I remarked on the paint job on his boat, which was based on the famous rainbow prism design from the Pink Floyd album cover. It turns out that this was done by Andy Russell, who painted Eileen, both originally and when we modified her.

Three Amigos on the poop

What are you doing with that thing?

The ship's company assembled at the stern

As we left the lock the people ahead of us in Otter were still struggling with the stuff wrapped around their prop, so we cruised on and were clear into the next lock a short distance away at Stanthorne. After going up that one we went on for a mile or so, then looked for a mooring. After rejecting one spot because of sheep in a field behind the towpath, we stopped on some shuttering just round the corner. It seemed a nice spot, but we did not realise that just opposite was a farm where, at four in the morning, someone would start reversing a vehicle over and over again – beep, beep, beep.

Moored at Wimboldsley - noisy farm just visible in the distance

TODAY: 4:35 HOURS. 7.8 MILES. 6 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 10:05 HOURS. 25.7 MILES. 7 LOCKs.

Thursday 1^st January

This was the last day of our trip, and we wanted to get to Nantwich reasonably early, so that Jonjo could pick us up and run us home. We got away just before ten, and sailed comfortably along to the first lock, Minshull – I dropped Loulie and the dogs off for a good walk before we got there. As we were going up a very old-fashioned boat, towing a butty, pulled up at the top moorings ready to come down. The people on her had restored both boats and were cruising the network along with another vintage boat which was a little way behind them. When we got to the next lock, Cholmondeston, we saw behind us the Otter, the boat with the disabled lady, so we waited in order to help them through the lock. As we were doing so Dark Side of the Moon also arrived on her way up – the canals are pretty quiet at this time of year, so you tend to see the same people a lot.

After that it was an uneventful trip up to Barbridge at the junction of the Branch with the main line of the Shroppie, and then down past the end of the Llangollen canal. The four lock flight at the bottom of the Llangollen is being rebuilt over the winter – one chamber is particularly narrow and boats keep getting stuck in there. We could see all the scaffolding and other building work in progress as we went by.

On our arrival in Nantwich we turned and moored stern-first in the finger docks at the NNC. Jonjo arrived soon after, and we were able to load ourselves, the dogs and all the luggage we needed into his van. We will be leaving Eileen there until March now – we are not getting as many changes done this year, but we are getting her blacking renewed (that requires a drydock) and the engine will be taken out so that the engine compartment can be cleaned and renewed. We are already looking forward to bringing her home in the spring – we may come back the long way around.

TODAY: 4:30 HOURS. 10.2 MILES. 2 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 14:35 HOURS. 35.9 MILES. 9 LOCKs.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the river

Friday 4^th October

After our enjoyable first trip on the Weaver a couple of weeks ago, we decided to go back again and complete the set by going down to the lower end of the river, having been to the upper limit of navigation on our last visit. We had moored Eileen at Keckwick overnight, so we were able to load up and get away in time to go through Preston Brook Tunnel at 12:30. We had booked our passage on the boat lift at 15:45, and after coming out of the Barnton tunnel we got a call from them asking where we were, because they “recommend” you get there half an hour early, which we had not done. It turned out they were in a hurry because they were closing early for some reason, and this was the final run.

In the stop lock at Dutton, in the rain

While we were in the lift the operator told us that the river had been very up and down overnight, to the extent that the trip boat had been jammed under the edge of the dock that morning. When we emerged from the caisson the difference was immediately visible – where previously the current had been imperceptible, now it was very strong. We headed upstream towards Northwich, and the first thing we did was to moor on a pontoon next to Barons Quay and get some shopping done. We decided to moor up in the same spot by Furey Wood that we used before, and as I went to turn across the river we were swept well below the spot I had been aiming at. There was no problem going back to the right place against the current, but it was a new experience. We moored up, but we were a little nervous given what we had been told about the river level. Then we discovered there were wasps going in and out of a hole in the bank, so we decided to take that as an excuse to give up on that spot.

A map of part of the park at Anderton

We went back downstream to Anderton, and our initial plan was to moor on a built-up stretch of bank where a number of other boats were already tied up. However as we were approaching a man on a boat we were passing warned us that the spot we were aiming at was shallow, and that he had been stuck there the previous night, taking about four hours that morning before he could get towed off. We decided to moor instead on the pontoon which we had used before, and again as I turned across the river we were swept well down below our target – I had to do some nifty steering to avoid clipping another moored boat. We knew from the last trip that there was no mobile signal at that spot, but as before we were compensated with some lovely walking for the dogs.

TODAY: 6:0 HOURS. 11.5 MILES. 1 LOCK. 1 Lift.

Saturday 5^th October

Our objective today was to get right down to the end of the navigable Weaver at Weston Point, and ideally to get back as far as possible, to catch our lift booking on Sunday. We set off at about 10:45, and soon arrived at Saltersford Lock. Because the river flows around the locks, by definition, there was no problem with the current while we were working through. At Saltersford they were using the larger lock – the smaller one has been out of action for a long time. The larger one is very large – I reckon it would take 20 narrowboats easily, and there are huge cavernous spaces in the walls, which help reduce the amount of water lost each time the lock operates.

Saltersford Lock

Below the lock we carried on down river, and soon came to the outskirts of Weaverham. As with Northwich this is a town I know well, I shared a house here in 1978, but from the river we were seeing an entirely new aspect. There is a long line of homes along the river, some substantial but some quite small, even some “static mobile homes”, and many with boats outside. Then further down is the Grange School Rowing Club, and as it was Saturday morning there were a lot of boats out, all sizes from eights down to single sculls. Just past them we came to Acton Swing Bridge, taking the A49 over the river beside the Leigh Arms. The pub was hosting a steam fair, and besides all the traction engines in the car park there were a lot of steam narrowboats on the river, and also the Daniel Adamson, the large Mersey tugboat.

Steam Narrowboats

Acton Swing Bridge

The Daniel Adamson

Approaching Dutton Locks - the river goes off to the right

The next landmark was Dutton Lock, the final lock for us on the descent, and once again we were using the larger chamber. We then passed under the railway viaduct, with the West Coast Main Line going across, far above. There followed quite a long stretch winding through open countryside, with Aston and the top end of Frodsham far away on either side. The river splits above Frodsham – it used to be possible to go on down the Weaver from here, but the lock which used to exist is derelict now, and you have to follow the main Navigation. That takes you down under the Frodsham Swing Bridge, and on under the Chester railway and the M56.

Going under the West Coast Main Line

Winding through the woods

After passing another rowing club you come to the start of the chemical factories, at Rocksavage. These stretch several miles around the bank from here to Weston Point, where the navigable part of the Weaver ends. It is a huge plant, or connected series of plants, especially as seen from close up at water level. Like the Winnington factory opposite the Anderton boatlift, this was one of the four component parts which formed ICI nearly a hundred years ago – ICI now gone, of course, though the canal is still here.

Frodsham Swing Bridge

Bridge under the Chester railway, with the M56 in the distance

Part way along this stretch there is another large lock on the left, Weston Marsh Lock. This gives access down to the Manchester Ship Canal (and ultimately to the Mersey and the sea). We were not going down there this time – we hope eventually to get onto the Ship Canal, but we need a different licence which requires additional checks, and some extra facilities on the boat, such as a lifebelt. Instead we headed on along the Weaver Navigation, until we came to the very end. Here a derelict arm branches off to the right – this is/was the old Runcorn and Weston canal, a short navigation which led up the “Ten Lock Flight” to the Bridgewater Canal in Runcorn Old Town. Straight ahead you come to a swing bridge, permanently closed, beyond which is a dock and eventually another lock down into the Ship Canal. This area is now out of use, though apparently still viable if needed – I understand it is owned by Stobarts.

The end of the line

We turned here, and headed back upstream. We had some thoughts of getting back up the Dutton Lock before it closed at five, but it fairly soon became clear we would not make it. We had a booking for the lift at 11:45 the next morning, and as the locks don’t start working until half nine, it would be quite tight. We decided to stop at the “Devil’s Garden”, a mooring place provided by the local farmer, and not too far below Dutton Lock.

Mooring at the Devil's Garden

It turned out that the Devil’s Garden was a bit of bank you could pull up against, beside a field at the bottom of some wooded slopes that led upwards away from the river. When we had moored and got out to let the dogs have a run we discovered that it was waterlogged to the point of being flooded almost all over, but there was no better place likely to be found below the locks, so we made the best of it. Later on, after dark, when we got off with the dogs we discovered that a herd of cows had arrived in the field, and we had a pretty muddy time splashing around in the dark with the dogs pulling on their leads and the cows plodding up and down around us. Later still, as we were getting ready for bed, we discovered that the river had dropped about a foot, so I made sure there was enough slack in the mooring lines. Despite that I spent a restless night – I was also worried that the river would rise suddenly to the point where we might drift onto the bank and become stuck, so I was feeling every slightest bump or wobble, trying to figure out what was happening. I even had half-dreaming thoughts that we might have come adrift and be floating slowly down river.

TODAY: 6:15 HOURS. 18.7 MILES. 2 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 12:15 HOURS. 30.2 MILES. 3 LOCKS. 1 LIFT.

Sunday 6^th October

Happily, when the light came I could see that we were still attached to the bank, and beside it, not on it – in fact the level had returned just about to where it had started. The cows were still about, which gave us challenges in managing the dogs, especially when they were having breakfast. We set off at nine, in torrential rain – a couple of eights from the rowing club were out practising, so at least we could console ourselves that someone was getting wetter than we were.

Navigating in the rain

Wet Bobs

We arrived at Dutton Lock at 9:30, but there was a little delay before the lock keeper arrived to start his shift. We went on up through the locks, and then hurried past Acton Bridge and Weaverham to Saltersford. I am not quite sure what the rules are about speed on the river, and going past moored boats. Certainly, as the channel is many times wider and much deeper than a canal, there is much less disturbance from your passage, but there is an instinctive feeling that you should be slowing down anyway, it is so ingrained into anyone who travels the canals. We called ahead to Saltersford, and there was no delay going through there, so we reached the lift at Anderton just about on time; we were lining up to moor at the holding dock, but they signalled us to go on in.

A muddy passenger on the Trent and Mersey

Going up took a little while, and by the time we had winded outside the lift and travelled back we had no chance of getting through Saltersford at 13:00. That meant we were at Preston Brook for the 16:00 passage, and as we were waiting another boat came up behind us – a steam-powered narrowboat called Whistle Down The Wind. They had been at the steam fair at Acton Bridge, and were on their way north. We went through the tunnel and moored at Keckwick to unload – we left Eileen there until the morning.

TODAY: 8:00 HOURS. 17.2 MILES. 3 LOCKS. 1 LIFT.

VOYAGE: 20:15 HOURS. 47.4 MILES. 6 LOCKS. 2 LIFT.

Monday 7^th October

Leaving Ruby at home, we took the other four dogs to Eileen, and sailed up to Stockton Bridge and Thorne Marine, where we filled up with diesel. Turning again at the mooring just above the London Bridge we set off back home. After going through Moore we spotted a large Dutch barge, fitted as though for the sea, but lying in the reeds on the offside. As we went past we could see that she had pulled out her mooring pins and drifted across from the towpath – there was a fairly strong westerly blowing. I decided there was no prospect of towing such an ungainly craft upwind across the canal and getting her moored safely – it is hard enough to control Eileen on her own in a strong side wind. But we took a few pictures and posted them on the Bridgewater Facebook group, and within a few minutes someone had responded to say they knew the owner, and that he had been alerted and was on his way.

Adrift

After that we cruised without incident back to the marina and moored up, before walking the dogs home. So ended our second river voyage, and very different from the first. It showed just how much a river can change, even a relatively tame one such as the Weaver, which has been used for navigation for centuries. It was clear, for example, how important it was to have an anchor rigged – last month we would only have been heading into trouble at a few feet per minute, but this time things could have gone badly wrong in seconds. You have an entirely new set of challenges and possibilities, that you do not need to consider when you are on a canal. It did not put us off the rivers, and we will certainly be back down onto the Weaver, but we will treat it with a bit more respect. As a postscript, a few weeks later the river rose so high that parts of Northwich centre were flooded, despite the flood defences which we had seen.

TODAY: 5:15 HOURS. 5.2 MILES. 0 LOCKS.

VOYAGE: 25:30 HOURS. 52.6 MILES. 6 LOCKS. 2 LIFTS

First Weaver voyage

Catching Up

After doing the Cheshire Ring I let this blog lapse, as I found that doing it every day was rather a burden. Especially in the summer months, when we would be cruising until quite late, it was taking up all the time left after dinner. However while going through the log book and reviewing the year I looked back over the blog and really enjoyed it, bringing back the trips we had taken. So I am going to catch up on three of our voyages since that August journey.

Thursday 19^th September

We decided that we were going to complete another of our long-term targets, and get down onto the River Weaver. We had Eileen moored at Keckwick overnight, so we loaded up with goods and dogs, and set off south at about noon. We went through Preston Brook tunnel at 13:30, and we called ahead to the boat lift to discover that the final descent was at 16:30. As we were going through Saltersford at 15:30 that meant we had to push on through Barnton tunnel and beyond, and we just made it.

We tied up at the holding dock, and I had time to rig the anchor, which I had bought in preparation for the river trip. On a canal, where there is rarely a current and it is mostly 3-4 feet deep, an anchor isn’t necessary. But on a river, with currents, weirs and deep water, you need the ability to stop moving safely in an emergency. The anchor, chain and rope are awkward objects, so on the canal I keep the anchor in the cabin, and the rest in the bow thruster compartment. But on a river they have to be ready for instant use, so before going down the lift I put them all together, attached the rope to the forward pin and put the anchor in the well deck.

Going down in the lift was a novel experience. There is room in each caisson for two boats, but we were on our own. You sail forward onto an aqueduct, and a gate is dropped behind you, then another gate opens to allow you move forward into the caisson itself. Once everything is closed there is a lot of clanking and grinding, water pours out and then you move slowly but smoothly down. Eventually you reach the bottom, the front gate is raised and you sail out onto the river.

First time on the river

Our first impressions of river cruising were of space, and complete calm. The current was almost completely imperceptible, a few feet a minute, and it didn’t affect navigation at all. What did make a difference, though, was the width of the waterway. On a canal you are always aware of the fact that there are very few places you can turn, because your boat is longer than the canal is wide. As reversing is slow and awkward, this means that your facing, and the proximity of winding holes for turning, are major constraints on your journey. On the river you can turn almost anywhere – indeed the Weaver is wide enough for a comfortable U-turn.

Barons Quay Northwich

Town Bridge

We headed upstream, round a big bend with reeds on both sides, then immediately into the centre of Northwich. It is more than 40 years since I started work with ICI here, but this was an entirely different view of the town, looking up at the two swing bridges as we sailed through. Along the river above the centre there are boatyards and docks, and quite a few seagoing vessels. They would look very small alongside a liner or tanker, but compared to canal traffic some of them are pretty large.

Mooring at Furey Wood

We went up as far as the pool below Hunts Lock, where we plan to moor tomorrow, then turned and went back down through the town. A few hundred yards below Town Bridge we pulled over to the bank which is quite well built up at that spot, and we were able to moor comfortably. We were on the edge of Furey Wood, a public park, with heavily wooded slopes rising steeply above us. Across the river was the new entertainment and shopping complex of Barons Quay, but we could let the dogs off in complete safety, as if we were miles from anywhere.

TODAY: 6:0 HOURS. 12.3 MILES. 1 LOCK. 1 Lift.

Friday 20^th September

We had noticed a leak of water in the cupboard under the sink last night – in fact what we had noticed was the water coming out onto the floor, the leak itself was under the back of the sink, behind the bin. So this morning, while Loulie took the dogs for a walk around the woods, I cleared the area and got under to have a look. The leak was coming down the pipes leading to the mixer tap, which I had to unbolt from below. I had hoped it would be a loose connection which I could easily tighten, but it proved to be a leak in the tap itself, at the point where the nozzle rotates to direct the stream. I tried tightening things up, then dismantling and rebuilding the unit, but a dribble still came out.

At this point Loulie came back with reports of how splendid the walking was around the woods, so I went for a bit of an explore. It is very steep, with many sets of wooden stairs linking the levels, and various lookout points.

Map of Furey Wood park. Our mooring was where the white path comes down to the river on the right

After lunch I decided to try to find some stuff to repair the tap, so I walked into town. Although we felt very remote, five minutes’ walk along the bank brought me to Town Bridge, and just across it is the shopping centre. In the market I found an old-fashioned hardware stall which had some PTFE plumber’s tape. However even with that there was still a leak, so I left the tap partly loose, with a cloth around the base to prevent any water running down behind the unit. Repair will have to wait until we can get someone with more plumbing skill than me – or maybe a new tap unit.

Trip boat from the Anderton lift passes our mooring 

After that we unmoored, and headed down river, past Anderton and then under Winnington Swing Bridge, which I must have crossed hundreds of times – it is much further off the water than it looks from the top of the bridge, and we sailed under with plenty of clearance. We went on down past the site of the old Wallerscote works, which is now partly a housing estate, with some clear rough ground, awaiting development.

The boat lift from the Weaver

A weir dropping down the the river

Going around the bend below Barnton

Winnington Swing Bridge

At Winnington the river splits off from the Navigation, and at several points as you progress downstream there are weirs off to the side where excess water can flow down into the river, thus keeping the navigable waterway at a fairly constant level. We sailed around a long bend below the Barnton outcrop, knowing that high above us was the familiar canal with the Barnton pool between the two tunnels. Before too long we arrived at Saltersford Lock, which was as far downstream as we were going on this trip.

We turned and sailed back the way we had come, and then through the centre of town, under the two swing bridges and up to Hunts Lock. We moored to the bank just below the lock, on clips attached to metal fittings on the stone dock side. It was quite a step up to get on and off, a bit tricky for the dogs. We were actually on an island – just above the lock the river goes off to the side and down a weir, before rejoining a few hundred yards below. A railway bridge goes over, high above, and there is a dry dock actually between two of the piers of the bridge. Across on the other side there are other shipyards – back in the day this was the centre of the Northwich shipbuilding area, which produced a famous class of canal vessels.

Moorings below Hunts Lock

Weir on the river on the other side of the island

A large boat moored in the river

We were here to see Jonjo’s band, Scratch, at the Bowling Green Inn, which is only a few hundred yards walk from where we were moored. Loulie’s friend Shirley also lives very close, and she and Joan turned up for the gig, which went very well, apart from Loulie damaging her Achilles while pogoing. We walked/limped back to the boat for the night.

TODAY: 2:15 HOURS. 7.3 MILES. 0 LOCKs.

Saturday 21^st September

We made a reasonably early start today, because we wanted to get all the way to the head of navigation at Winsford and back in time to come down Hunts Lock before it closed. All the locks on the Weaver are manned – they are huge compared with a typical canal lock. They are paired, with a “small” and a large lock in parallel, and even the small one is easily capable of taking half a dozen narrowboats – they are designed for seagoing ships. We went up at Hunts Lock – they tied a rope to the end of our centre line, which they looped around a bollard on the side high above me, so I could keep the boat under control as the water rose. The (volunteer) lock keeper said he would ring ahead to the next set at Vale Royal to say we were coming – you don’t have to “book” but things go quicker if they are expecting you. He also gave me a package to deliver up there.

Derelict boats above Hunts Lock

The Blue Bridge

This stretch of river goes up past Sir John Deane’s rowing club, and in fact I did a little rowing here, decades ago, as part of some ICI social club event. A long straight reach leads to the Blue Bridge where the A556 goes over, and then out into the country. Vale Royal locks are round a tight bend, but we had been warned and took the right line in. The lock keeper here told us about a bridge a little further up which is very low, so we pulled over to the bank soon after leaving the lock. Ever since we got Eileen we have had some items on top of the roof directly in front of the steering position – a gangplank and a couple of poles. As the roof is stepped aft, this is the highest spot, so we moved everything along to the roof of the forward cabin, which meant that they were below the level at the rear. That meant we had effectively reduced the air draft by about nine inches, and it also made for a much clearer view forward from the stern, especially for Loulie. When we reached the bridge in question we slid through with plenty to spare, and it was clear from the gauge marked on the pier that the river was fairly low.

Immediately after the low bridge you come to the salt mines, and the river starts to bend back and forth, weaving between mountains of rock salt, pithead buildings and old piers and docks, no longer used, though the mines are still very active. After a mile or so, around another bend you come to a large winding hole showing the upstream limit for the large seagoing vessels that used to serve the mines. Above this point the river curves through wooded slopes, with no sign of human influence for a while, as though you are suddenly in the Canadian backwoods. Even when you reach Winsford you are hardly aware of it, a few houses in the trees at the top of the slopes, but the banks are wooded even as you go under the major roundabout on the A54. Past that you go upriver a few hundred yards more until you reach Winsford Flash. This is alive with sailing dinghies, but there are signs everywhere warning that it is too shallow for canal craft, so this is as far as we go.

Mountains of salt

The minehead

Wooded river bends below Winsford

Having turned at the opening to the flash, we started back down river. Past the salt mines and the low bridge there are some nice moorings on the right, where I dropped Loulie and the dogs. They walked on down to Vale Royal Locks, where I picked them up before descending. On to Hunts Lock, which we reached well ahead of the deadline at 17:00, and down into the middle of Northwich. We moored right in the centre and I did some shopping, then we shifted down below Town Bridge to fill up with water.

Moored on the pontoon by the boatlift

After this we went on down to Anderton, and moored on a pontoon just above the boat lift. There are a number of these pontoons on the river – they float, moving up and down large vertical posts which are fixed in the bottom, and pass through holes in the pontoons. This means that if the level rises or falls the pontoon, and boats moored to it, rise or fall as well. By contrast if you are moored to the bank when the level changes, all sorts of bad things can happen. There was no mobile signal when we moored, but in compensation we discovered that there is wonderful dog walking up into the woods and ultimately to Marbury Country Park.

TODAY: 6:45 HOURS. 12.2 MILES. 4 LOCKs.

Sunday 22^nd September

We went onto the CRT website for the boat lift and found the first available slot was at 11:30, so we went down river, part way to Saltersford, and moored at a handy spot to have breakfast and let the dogs off. We then turned round – taking advantage of the freedom given by the width of the river – and sailed back up to Anderton. On the way down we had been alone in the caisson, but today we were joined by another boat. You are tied side by side for 20 minutes or more, with not much to do (unlike a lock) so there is plenty of time to chat. The other boat was a rental, with a couple aboard – an Italian man and a Japanese woman. He is a marine engineer, and was very excited about the lift. Loulie gave them a tour of Eileen, and they made us (me) a strong Italian coffee.

Once were up and out of the lift we turned for home – in fact the angle of the exit meant we had to turn right then wind immediately, opposite the visitor mooring, before setting off north. After that it was the usual trip home, through the three tunnels and up to moor at Keckwick Lane about four, to unload cargo and passengers. So ended our first river trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a different feeling to navigating along a much wider waterway, and in many cases with no towpath or other human artefacts, and as I have said, the freedom to turn at any point is very liberating. It was also nice to see a town with which I am very familiar from an entirely different angle. Great fun.

TODAY: 6:00 HOURS. 9.8 MILES. 1 LOCK. 1 LIFT.

VOYAGE: 21:00 HOURS. 41.6 MILES. 6 LOCKS. 2 LIFTS