Big River Adventure

 

It seemed a long time since we reached the dry dock and left Knot-a-Yot for work on its bottom.  Plans changed when the Anderton Boat Lift broke down (just after we’d been on it) so we couldn’t get back onto the canal.  Then we got stuck in the dry dock for a couple of weeks and finally got it onto the river where it remained moored (thanks to Matt and his family) until Wednesday this week when we set off to go down onto the Manchester Ship Canal. 

Of course, I didn’t realise how exciting this trip was going to be – just us and another barge, Kingfisher, that had been with us in the dry dock and needed to get back to Todmorden. 

It was raining when we set off and a bit chilly after weeks of sun.  We had to go through three large locks, all manned so no real effort apart from trying to keep the boat at the side as the gates closed, the water emptied downstream, and the other gates opened. 

By the time we reached the last gate, after the interesting smells near Runcorn’s chemical works, the sun had come out and the Manchester Ship Canal looked inviting.  It was wide, but not much wider than the river we’d been on.  There were lots of different birds including great crested grebes and Canada geese.  We only passed one big ship on the way and that was moored up.  There were some interesting structures that looked like monsters with steam and flames emerging from them.

We reached the Ellesmere Port museum where we were to stay the night and had to wait for the bridge to open before we could enter the lock.  Once inside, we were trapped until we found someone who explained how to get out and back into the museum compound.  So, we went into town (grim place but friendly people who liked dogs) and returned with an Indian takeaway.  

The next day we set off for Chester with a couple of locks to get out of the museum then nothing till the staircase locks at Chester which a volunteer helped with.  The next five locks were hard work so we stopped for the night just after the last one. 

In the morning I stayed on the boat with Ian and Helen caught the bus back to Northwich to pick up the car to meet us at Tattenhall.  As anticipated, there was a wind blowing in the marina and, although a bow-thruster had been fitted, it wasn’t wired up so the final part of the journey proved to be a bit bumpy (he hit two boats!).