Wednesday 29 May Salersford Lock

Day : Wednesday
Date : 29 May 2019
Start : 1000 hrs
Finish : Saltersford Lock Landing 1515 hrs

Yesterday the evening turned out to be the best part of the day, the wind dropped away and it stayed fine, the river was like a mill pond.
We were moored right beside a bench in memory of Tommy Shuttlewood a rather famous blind fisherman. The seat now supports some knitted squares as well as other mementoes.

This morning we set off upstream to Northwich Dry Dock passing this chap just keeping an eye on things not that there is much about on this end of the river with Saltersford Lock closed.

We moored up at Northwich Dry Dock to take out car back to the marina where we moor, we left it in Northwich when we picked up Harnser. Once the car was back at the marina we had a short walk along the towpath and then through the industrial estate to the bus stop. Checked the timetable and a bus was due at 1236 hr. looked at my watch and it was 1236 and there coming out of the junction was the bus, good timing or what. needles to say our Suffolk bus passes didn't register on the swipe machine in the bus but the driver was happy and we were soon off back to Northwich. After a bit to eat in town a walk back to the dry dock and say goodbye to Matt, Rebekah and Steve.

By now it was drizzling and windy so we decided to go back down stream. As we passed the waste disposal bins at the CRT yard in Northwich a chap was emptying the bins into plastic bags and throwing it up onto the bank, I wondered how they got the bins up to empty them, now I know. As we made our way down stream the rain got heavier and we had plan to moor in the same spot as last night after winding above Saltersford Lock. The lock has been closed for sometime for repairs with stop planks above and a bund below so they could drain the lock, one of the jobs on the list was to replank the top gates, don't know it this got completed because the downstream bund failed and the lock flooded, thankfully no one was trapped or injured but it has left a half completed lock that they can't drain. At the moment there is no end in sight.

As it was still chucking it down with rain we decided to stay on the lock moorings overnight, well there will be no one going through in the foreseeable future.

Today's Journey

7½ Miles 0 Locks in 2¼ hours