Winsford Red Lion

Just as we were about to get up it started to rain, so no rush. Todays plan is a cruise to Vale Royal locks and back up as we have a table booked at the Red Lion tonight.
Once the rain finally stopped we headed off, reversing out onto the Flash, what I hadn’t realised was just how windy it would be, which made life interesting for a few minutes. Back down the river the CRT jurisdiction doesn’t start until the second bridge by the Red Lion moorings. Apart from the boats that live up on the Flash we are the only boat on the river above Vale Locks. Passing the water outlet the flow was much greater than yesterday

with lots more foam with the flow reaching the far side of the river. At the salt mine  a chap with his front loader was hard at work making the salt mountain bigger. There is a real range of colours in this salt, I don’t know if each colour has a different use.

We passed under the Swing Bridge again, I thought it was just a path but there was a car crossing just before we arrived.

The water level looks the same but we have only had about 7mm of rain this week although it seemed more.

We carried on downstream to Vale Royal locks where we winded and came up to the visitor moorings for lunch and when the sun came out with some nice blue sky made our way up the The Red Lion moorings at the head of the CRT navigation by bridge . I said earlier we were the only boat up here, just as we came in to moor 6 canoes came down from the Flash.

 

Today’s Journey

 

6 miles with no locks in 2 hours

Winsford Marina

This morning I spent half an hour on the phone trying to sort a transit up through Hunts (easy and Vale Royal(the problem) Last night I booked Hunts for today and went to do the same at Vale Royal and there were no passages listed this month. So this morning I rang CRT and spoke to a young lady, she didn’t know the answers but contacted someone who did so at 10am we set off to Hunts lock to find 2 CRT chaps and two lady Volockies being trained. However just before we set of Rueben came by with an empty flat to take to the dredging, so now between us and the lock was a dredger, full pan, empty pan and a tug. I  must admit I have never passed one like this before, under the arm of the dredger

Roger Alsop was on the bridge as we passed under it and I noticed he was taking photographs of us.  He has kingly agreed that I could post this one of us heading for the dredger bridge on my blog.

 

  
At Hunts Lock we entered the smaller chamber, We actually arrived before our booking but it was all OK as they were there doing the training. We discussed our plans and after locking us through they drove up to Vale Royal to lock us through there .
We had some lovely reflections as we made our way upstream with mill pond calmness.

At Vale Royal the smaller chamber, the one that is in use is to the right of the larger one. We arrived before our locking team and when they arrived that had to first empty the chamber and swing the foot bridge that crosses the chamber before we could enter.

The flow on the river is almost undetectable at the moment and we had a good headroom under Newbridge Foot Bridge. We have been under when its much tighter.

There was plenty of water coming in, I think this is from a sewage works but I am not sure on that.

We carried on up to beyond the head of Navigation to Winsford Marina, when we arrived I counted 28 swans in there. As we went in they all swam out, I took care to make sure none were between Harnser and the moorings.

The name Winsford Marina is interesting, it consists of a hard edged basin with a free to use slipway at the mouth, a single tap and a free carpark. Not what  most people would consider to be a Marina.

If anyone watches Canalboat Diaries Robbie was here in last weeks episode Canal Boat Diaries - Series 7: Episode 4 | Channel 4.

Todays Journey

 

6 miles with 2 locks in 2½ hours

Northwich

This morning Diana spotted this flat and tug hovering alongside. He was waiting for the Town Bridge to swing and timed it perfectly, well he has been boating since he was a kid.

We headed upstream to visit Matt at the Northwich Drydock Since we were here last they have got the side slip working, I can’t think where there is another working one in the UK, loads in mainland Europe.

Just beyond this is where the dredging is taking place so moorings alongside the yard are limited but we got in up near the end of the drydock.

After finding Matt and having a chat we turned round and headed back downstream, we had to wait a few minutes for the dredger driver to make safe so that we could pass.
Down at Anderton lift the Daniel Adamson  was still 

moored up. She is doing a few cruises from there over the next couple of weeks so we will probably see her on the move. We made our way downstream passing an island of Floating Pennywort before mooring for lunch . While were there Rueben came back up with his tug and an empty flat, slowing as he passed us. Soon it was time for us to set off so we went a little further downstream, passed where the dredging's were being offloaded to

wind and head back upstream. Again we had to pass under Winnington Bridge, this photo shows the arch a bit better.

We just passed the Anderton Lift and the pontoon moorings when Diana spotter the bow of a loaded flat coming round the bend. I gave a quick blast on the horn to let him know we were there and we passed with loads of room. We are now moored in exactly the same spot as last night.
At the moment you have to book Hunts and Vale Royal locks. I have booked Hunts OK for tomorrow and return Thursday but there are no bookings available at all for Vale Royal so that’s a none runner, I will ring them in the morning.

Today’s journey

 

7¾ miles with no locks in 2¼ hours

Northwich

Well as you can see the weather today has definitely gone down since last week. Although it looked bad

we only had about 6 spots of rained all day, there was a little overnight but that doesn't matter.
Away at our normal tenish, no hurry to get anywhere and the river is very busy, we have seen 6 boats on the move all day. This Grebe had two

chicks, but the little buggers kept diving under so only a photo of one. Their plumage amuses me.
We soon arrived at Saltersford Lock, as we had met a couple of boats a little earlier the lock was ready, just needed the gates opening. That’s an awful lot of

water for little old us. This lock and Dutton Lock are maned 7 days a week whereas the other two have to be booked.
You have to watch the arch as you travers under Winnington Swing Bridge keeping well to the towpath side, we could probably do mid channel if I dropped the exhaust.There is black painted steel work between the white bits.

The steam boat Danial Adamson was moored at Anderton Lift and it looked as it they had a car show on. They must be losing a fortune not taking the trip boat up and down the lift several ties a day. We carried on into town and moored at the old town visitor moorings between Town and Hayhurst Swing Bridges.

Today’s journey

 

5½ miles with 1 lock in 2 hours

Acton Bridge

A nice quiet night last night, but it never really got dark. This morning the rowers were about at about 8am but we didn’t see any after we set off at 10. We have seen more Goslings today than we have seen the rest of the trip, I don’t know if the white one in this group of 4 with young is a white “grey Goose” or just a feral one

We didn’t see any boats moving but one thing we noticed is how much the bank side vegetation has increased since out last visit 3 years ago thought. I would like this water feature in my garden.

One of our favourite moorings when we came on the river a lot was Devils Elbow, I don’t think we will be spending much time there this trip.

Soon we were at Dutton Lock and we pulled into the bank so Diana could go find the lock keeper, turned out he was one of the old seasonal lock keepers and a Narrowboater so we spent a bit of time catching up since we last met. There are only two seasonal keepers on the river now. The old wreck above the locks is slowly disappearing under the water. I have photographed it a few time over the years.

We only went as far as Acton Bridge as we have a table booked for dinner tonight.

Todays Journey

 

5¾ miles with 1 lock in 2½ hours.

Sutton Weaver - It’s a long one

Nice night moored in the basin at Ellesmere Port, there were two other boats in there. one for a week doing day visits by bike and train and the other left this morning.
We were booked to lock down onto the MSC at 10-15 am this morning so we were up in loads of time. About 10 0’clock I spotted a CRT volunteer, rather elderly and using a stick to walk. I thought strange if they have sent him to lock us down, but no. He came to tell us the swing bridge was out of order and our journey cancelled with no program to fix the bridge. I rang Matt at the Dry Dock and he said leave it with him, he would get back to us.
While this was going on there was a young lady a short way behind us pruning the trees that are growing in a boat. Yes that’s right.

Anyway after a short time a couple of calls from Matt and from CRT it transpired the bridge had jammed in the heat last week and they were worried they had damaged the hydraulics forcing it. A company had been contacted yesterday to come and look at it. This then got escalated and the next call said a man was on his way, if the bridge worked OK he would contact CRT, they would come and do the lock, Marsh lock team would be mobilised again and we would be on our way. The chap from the Council arrived, opened the bridge and the top gates of the lock and gave me a wave. It was five past eleven

and we were on our way. we stopped in the lock and he contacted CRT, I thought someone was going to come down from the museum, but no this chap was miles away so we sat in the lock for about 40 minuets  trying to keep the ducklings out. Once out

of the lock I contacted MCS Control and he informed me that the George Essburger had just passed so we were clear to go. I was pleased it was in front and not chasing me. .

We didn’t follow him too far before he slipped off into a dock on the port side.

Because they moor that side of the canal and there is no bridge to reach what is effectively the main land, they are on an island there is a ferry service for them, two small motorised flats with huts.
These flit back and forth across the canal as required moving boat crews etc.

When we came out from the port we turned right passing new housing, the museum and Stanlow refinery.

 

 

 

At the far end of the refinery there was another vessel moored, the Ghibli a LPG Tanker.

Once past the Ghibli I had to ring MSC again to tell them we were clear of the refinery. Normally on a Narrowboat 5MPH seems fast, today I had to keep checking I was moving. After the refinery which stank the bank is a solid high rock wall, in the past there have been wooden jetties along here reached by iron stairs from the top.

We weren't alone on the canal and soon this orange launch was catching us up before disappearing into the distance.

This boat appeared to have a crane mounted on her deck, I was expecting it to be a grab dredger buy no grab, just a hook.

There is a discharge quay for dredgers to berth at and to pump the mud ashore, we were to see a large dredger later.

After this the banks are littered with old lock gates and bits of wooden Dolphins.

At this point looking back I could see slowly catching up on me a big blue dredger, as he got closer I think he eased his speed knowing I was turning off onto the Weaver. Behind him you can see some of the wind farm on this very open area.

By now we were close to the entrance to the Weaver, the channel is marked with a couple of red and green buoys, Red to red and green to green going upstream and you need to look straight down the lock mouth before you approach, You can see our route on the attached Google Map.

We turned and followed the marked channel towards the lock with one gate wide open ready for us.

As there are problems opening and closing the gate on this lock there were 4 CRT chaps waiting for us to lock us up the short way to the river level.

Because there is no power to operate the gates it took them ages to shut the bottom gate, thank goodness they only opened one. For us to leave they just opened one top gate about half way to give us room to slide through. It took us 20 minutes getting through.

Once clear of the lock we pulled onto the lock waiting pontoon and had lunch before continuing up river to Sutton Weaver, luckily Diana spotted all the hedge debris floating in the middle of the river.

 

 

Today’s Journey

 

9¼ miles with 2 locks in 3¼ hours