Sutton Bridge Wednesday 28 March 2018

Will it rained again last night, and still my body is not in line with the clock so had trouble waking up this morning. Departure was again delayed, not due to rain but hail. When it finally stopped at 1030 I contacted the Saltersford Lock Keeper to say we were on our way, he told me other boats were coming down but if we were there before the others he would work me down, however just as I was dropping the stern rope of this pair came along.

It would be bad manners to pull out in front of them so I let them by and followed them down to the lock. If you look closely you can see Roger doing the brass on Clematis in the rain. As usual she was paired with the butty Ilford They went right to the front of the lock and I came in behind them, a few minutes later another ex working boat Alcor arrived and lay beside us. They are heading for Ellesmere Port via the Manchester Ship Canal for Easter.

Being on the inside at the back we were last out of the lock but it wasn't long beforeAlcor was winding it on and heading ahead only to be waiting for us in Dutton Lock. As they were all mooring overnight below Dutton Lock I was invited to leave first, looking back you can see just how big this lock is.

Unfortunately the Peregrine Falcons have not returned to the viaduct this year, however the Ravens have nested and an Egret has also been seen in the area as will as a Short eared Owl.

I assume it was CRT or someone working for them carrying out a survey at the old demolished Pickerings Bridge. At first as we approached I thought it was someone with a model boat crossing the river but when we got closer we could see the operators and the boat more clearly. There is more information about it HERE.

We carried on to our planned mooring for the night just before Sutton swing bridge, there were several boats moored hear and there was just room for us between the first two. The chap on the first boat came out and kindly took my stern line so it didn't take us long to make fast. We hadn't been here long when we heard the barriers of the bridge go down so we wondered who was coming through, but they just opened and then closed the bridge again.

It will be opening again tomorrow to let the Daniel Adamson through, a stem powered historic vessel, so maybe they were just checking it still worked before it arrived.

Today's Journey 8 miles, 2 locks in 2¾ hours

Barnton Cut Tuesday 27 March 2018

Well the weather forecast was right and we woke up in the night with the rain, that was in between waking up with the Canada geese who spent the night just across the river. This morning there was more heavy rain but by 11am it was down to a fine drizzle so we set off for Winsford the official head of navigation.

Just before Newbury swing bridge they are extending the mobile home park by building two large gabion walls, I wonder if they will be advertised as having their own Haw Haw.

Newbury bridge is quite low, we have to remove the stove chimney and lower the exhaust and flag pole, I thought the weather station would be OK but the anemometer just twanged on the underside bolts, so I remover the head before we came back down stream which happened to coincide with a car crossing.

Union Salt had a salt mountain a little further up stream last time we came this way. Today its 90% gone, It must have been the beast from the East.

The moorings at The Red Lion pub have had a makeover since we were last this way, lets hope they are not as slippery when wet as the town moorings at the end of the Lower Flash.

After winding we headed back down stream, by now the weather had improved quite a bit and the sun was peeping out, but much cooler than yesterday.

Just by the official winding hole, only needed if you are a lot bigger than us, there is another salt storage depot, this one the salt is all covered but today they were even removing salt from there.

Continuing on I got the feeling I was being watched and I wasn't wrong as this is who was sitting in the tree.

As the locks are all manned they close for lunch each day so we stopped on the same moorings we used last night and had our lunch before locking down through Vale Royal lock, it was good to see that they had the second winch back, so didn't need to carry it over the lock to open and close the gate. As usual they rand ahead to Hunt's lock to let them know we were coming. The keeper here had 2 trainees that he was instructing. Chatting to him it turned out that on Sunday he was in Middlewich pulling the trapped boats from the Middlewich Branch following the breach.

Saturn, the restored horse drawn fly boat was moored outside Yarwood's Basin It can often be found at the bottom of the lift as part of the attractions.

A little further on were the barge and tug that I tried to photograph yesterday, today its just a static shot of them moored up and left.

CRT have moved the waste disposal facilities from the town bridge out to a floating pontoon here, this is to reduce and hopefully stop them being used by non boaters to dump rubbish, this is a problem CRT have all over the system that householders use CRT facilities to dispose of their rubbish. The new facilities consist or a row of domestic type wheelie bins, its a shame they are all for general waste and non for recycling.

We considered going down to Acton Bridge for the night and eating in the pub, but it was too late when we arrived at Saltersford Lock to go through, so again we are on the Barnton Cut moorings.

Today's Journey 11½ miles, 2 locks in 3¼ hours.

Vale Royal Moorings Monday 26 March 2018

It may have been a warm sunny day yesterday but the grass was white this morning when we woke up, however the sun was out and it soon warmed up. Not much about on the river yet, we only met a couple of boats all day.

We pushed off at about ten past eleven and decided to head upstream again. Winnington Swing Bridge looked nice in the sunshine, you can see how little wind there is.

The old Soda plant is now down to cleaning soil and rubble it was a different picture the first time we came down the Weaver in 2015 it looked like this series of photos my blog.

It wasn't till we passed the lift that we met our first boat of the day

the second was somewhat smaller being a Bridgewater Tug but I think it was off to tow a larger barge somewhere.(The camera didn't work).

We had a short stop in Northwich to eat lunch, fill with water and do a bit of shopping, dropping off and buying books at the charity shops.

Its nice to see that the old slipway in Northwich has been cleared of undergrowth, the winches look as if they may have been used yesterday, I wonder if they are still serviceable and if the slip will be put back to work.

Up through Hunts lock which is now thankfully manned every day, the CRT information sheet is not very clear as to when seasonal manning commences, it just says Easter, so it looks like that includes the week that contains Good Friday. As usual the keeper asks if we are going through Vail Royal locks so he can phone ahead and warn them, they are still operating the lock with the use of a winch to pull the gates open and closed, they use to have two one to open and one to close, but one broke. The quadrants have been away for ages now and I read somewhere that new ones are being cast. Above the lock a Cormorant took off as we approached, most of them just dive and come up when you have gone by but this one made a big fuss of getting airborne.

There are some visitor moorings with mooring rings about half a mile above the lock so we have stopped there for the night.

Today's Journey 6 miles, 2 locks in 2¾ hours.

Barnton Cut Sunday 25 March 2018

Well we may have put all the battery clocks on an hour last night and the computer does its self but we didn't alter our body clock so it was a late start. The hire boat at Anderton Marina was off out at 10 am and there were several hire boats going by very slowly from the Bridgewater.

We pushed off at 11 am only as far as Anderton Lift where I booked us on to the next available drop the river Weaver, The chap who was operating the lift tried to get us on the one due to go down as it was sitting full of water ready to go, but no we were booked on the afternoon one and not before.

I used the time while we waited to rewire the energiesation system for the 24 volt alternator. The original 24 volt alternator self energised which was ideal but the new lighter one requires voltage applying to the field windings, this is done using a relay on the 12 volt system.

I just got finished in time for us to be ready at ten past one for the twenty to two drop, but we had time for lunch while we waited at the lift.

The children look to be making good use of the new playground on a sunny Sunday keeping them well amused and burning off excess energy.

It is unusual for us to be on the lift in the sun shine, its normally raining or blowing a gale, today was very pleasant.

Once on the river we turned down stream and only went as far as Barnton Cut visitor moorings where a trip down the weedhatch was required to remove a lump of polythene from around the propeller. I still needed to run the engine for a bit to charge the batteries back up as it had only been a short cruising day and the engine is shutdown while we were on the lift.

Today's Journey 2½ miles 1½ hours

Anderton Saturday 24 March 2018

We spent most of the day at the Bridgewater Boat Club ,we had to go by car and not boat, because as we were on the Bridgewater canal by boat a couple of weeks ago and if you return within a month you are libel to a charge of £40 per week. The reason for our visit was to represent the Cutweb Internet Boat Club who are affiliated to the AWCC at the AWCC AGM.

It was mid afternoon before we got back to Harnser and set off at half three heading to Anderton for the night, while we were taking on water at the Anderton Services Richard came along on nb. Kinver, he had just been to collect it from Middlewich where it had been trapped on the Middlewich Branch for the past week due to the breach and the canal being drained.

We saw our first Swans nest at Anderton on the end of the land spit at Anderton Marina.

Richard moored Kinver in the marina and then walked round for a quick hello before they headed off home, a 2½ hour drive, so he spent longer driving than he did boating today.

Today's Journey 5 miles with no locks in 2 hours

Park Farm Marina Friday 23 March 2018

This morning we walked to the Middlewich Branch to what progress was being made refloating the stranded boats.

CRT have 3 electric pumps below Wardle lock pumping water back above the lock to fill the section from here to a dam just before the breach.

The pumps are electrically powered from a generator on a boat sitting on the Trent and Mersey canal near the entrance to Wardle lock.

Someone from CRT has been along all the boats and fitted a bung in their exhaust pipes to stop water entering as the level rises.

They have had to station personnel all the way up the Cheshire locks to ensure that they don't draw the small pound below Kings lock down. We walked along the towpath as far as the dam where the towpath is now closed off. On the way back we passed on of the appeal notices that CRT have erected and just as we left they were erecting a Gazebo on the towpath where I expect they will be fund raising.

Hopefully all the stranded boats will be out by Monday morning.

We walked back to the boat and set off for a very slow cruse back to Park farm Marina, slow because we need to recharge the batteries and if we just cruise ant normal speed they will be nowhere near charged when we arrive. As the day progressed the weather warmed up and we stopped for a while by Whatcroft Flash while I did a couple of jobs on the boat. One was to fit a new 13A socket in the bedroom, the one we had was wired before the bedroom was redesigned so the socket was not in the most convenient place. The socket I fitted also has double USB ports which will be handy for powering the Ipad.

I also repaired the anemometer transmitter, well bodged actually. The bearing is shot but a dribble of WD40 soon had it spinning away again. The question is, should I try and fit a new bearing or try to get a new head. It came from Maplin so I am not holding my breath.

Also while we were moored we cleared up the rubbish that some other boater just left on the towpath, we will drop this at Anderton services Sunday.

Today's Journey 4.9 miles, 1 lock in 2¼ hours.

Middlewich Thursday 22 March 2018

As I know you are all sitting out there just waiting for another blog I felt it my duty to battle up the M6 through all the road works for 5 hours to the boat and then stand on the back deck freezing.

We untied the boat at 3.20 pm. and headed out of the marina, turning south towards Middlewich. We only met one boat and saw very few moored boats along the way. What we did see was a group of 5 buzzards soaring over the canal. We arrived at Middlewich below Big Lock and there was not a single boat moored there, as the lock was empty we locked up and continued to the next winding hole, where we turned and then just reversed up to a towpath mooring.

Today's Journey 4.9 miles, 1 lock in just under 2 hours

The marina Friday 9 March 2018

After the afternoon rain the evening was quite clear with a star light night. being clear the temperature actually dropped down well below zero in the early hours of the morning.

It was about half ten when we set off in the sunshine, the wind had died away to nothing overnight. and we made our way back to the marina. We only met two boats on the way, one at a bridge hole and one by a fallen tree, in both cases they gave way to us and waved me through. An hour and a half later we were backing into our mooring spot, again not the best of timing because just as I was turning inside the marina entrance anther boat entered the marina and had to it and wait in the entrance until I sorted my self out, space is a bit tight for turning at the end of the pontoons.

Once we were packed up we set off down the M6 as far as junction 2 where we turned off to Bascote. We are spending the night at the Old Toll House at the top of the Bascote Locks..

Today's Journey 4½ miles in 1½hours

Our total for this trip has be 50 locks and a 140 miles

Middlewich Thursday 8 March 2018

As we didn't have that far to go today we waited until the rain stopped about 11 before setting off. First stop Anderton services to fill with water and dump recycling. Lee and Roberta were there on Halsall, they had just loaded with coal and were getting ready to set off.

Once we had filled up we were away and a couple of hours later I was reversing into our berth. The reason for returning was not to go home, but to do an oil and filter change, at the same time I also top up the 4 T105 6volt batteries, they take anything up to 1½ Lts of water each time. We had lunch before I started just to let the engine cool a bit but still be warm to make the oil easy to pump out.

Once that was all done we moved the car a bit and put some items not required on board in the boot. Then it was back out on the cut, turning right and heading to Middlewich, it ended a bit damp with a rainbow. Once you are past Whatcroft Flash the next winding point is just below Big Lock and most conveniently there are moorings just beside it, so that is where we have moored for the night, tomorrow morning we have to retrace our steps to the marina and drive to Napton. But more on that tomorrow night.

Today's Journey 9½ miles in 3½ hours

Anderton Wednesday 7 March 2018

A rather unusual alarm woke me early this morning, it was Curlews calling to each other, I wandered down to look out of the side hatch and there was a flock of about 20 using the offside field by the canal. Being early it did mean I went back to sleep so not an early start.

We finally pushed of at 11 am. in the sunshine as you can see by this view of Fiddlers Ferry Power Station.

A little further on and the new Runcorn Mersey Gateway bridge towers come into view, unfortunately you cant see the deck, just the towers.We arrived at Preston Brook Tunnel in good time, transited in this direction is between half past the hour and twenty to so we went through at 1230 after eating an early lunch. The tunnel suffered a collapse in November 1981 and was closed for over 3 years while repairs were carried out. While I transited the tunnel Diana walked over the top. The collapsed section is quite close to the half way point and has been repaired with concrete and not brick, eventhough the tunnel is a listed structure. and all the rest of it is lined in red brick.

As I traversed the tunnel a boat entered behind me. I exited the tunnel a few seconds before Diana appeared and she met me at Dutton Lock, as I suspected on the way out, two of us could open the top gate without drawing a paddle, there was only a couple of inches level difference across the lock, even so I walked back and drew the paddle for the following boat.

As we approached the Black Prince hire base at Bartington they had just started to move boats about and one was lying across the canal, however they soon had the inside one away and the other one back against the bank, this was followed by lots of apologies and thanks for our patience waiting. We were now travelling and watching the clock, the transit time for Saltersford tunnel was half past to quarter to the hour, it looked as if we would do it comfortably. Then our next delay, at the last bridge before the tunnel was Halsall's bows and they weren't moving. Lee hopped off with a pole and got the stern out and she levelled up but still novisible progress. I offered a snatch but Lee felt she could be coming free so I pulled back out of the way, slowly there was movement and se was away and this was a very lightly loaded boat, good job they didn't have 15 ton of coal on. We arrived at the tunnel mouth at 28 minutes past two and again Diana decided to walk over. By now Nb.Solong had caught us up and I got quite a nice photo of her coming into the tunnel behind us.

Between Saltersford Tunnel and Barton Tunnel a mother was out with her child and dogs, I don't think I have ever seen a Spaniel get so close to the ground as this one did. He had his eye on a stick. No time constraints on Barton, just make sure there is no one coming the other way which is not easy as there is a bend at each end of the tunnel, so your bows are in the tunnel before you can see the other end. We carried on in the sunshine to moor outside the Anderton Lift Visitor Centre. The ex tar boat Tay was in the waiting area to go down to the Weaver, I asked if they were going in the morning, but it turned out they should have gone at mid day, but the lift is broken.

Today's Journey 10 Miles, 3 tunnels in 3½ hours.