It was an early start for us! A peep out of the porthole at 5.15am revealed a stunning sunrise and by the time we had got the photos we were passed going back to sleep.
We had a plan, all of us agreed that we would stop at The Lion Salt Works at Marston, which is a couple of miles past Northwich, to find out more about salt production, unfortunately these old works are in a sad state of disrepair and are awaiting restoration before it can reopen as a museum. On the way we passed anothe flash and sunken boat before a much more modern salt works, with huge plumes of steam drifting away.
The Anderton Sanitation Station was timely as we all needed water etc. He
re we did say a proper goodbye to Judy & Don as they would not be dropping down onto the River Weaver, we will miss them as they had become really good chums in a surprisingly short time.
A problem with the card operated pumpout, it accepted the card, lit the right lights, but refused to suck. With the help of the owner of the boat next in the queue, we used our manual pumpout kit on both boats and he kindly gave me his unused card as he would still be around when BW turned up and would hopefully get a replacement card from them.
A problem with the card operated pumpout, it accepted the card, lit the right lights, but refused to suck. With the help of the owner of the boat next in the queue, we used our manual pumpout kit on both boats and he kindly gave me his unused card as he would still be around when BW turned up and would hopefully get a replacement card from them.
Just around the bend was the two holding mooring for the lift, it was about 1.30pm when we arrived, there were two boats waiting and they would go down at 1.45. I gently moored alongside them. I hadn’t pre-booked, that would have cost a fiver, no charge for just turning up and fortunately as there was no other boat booked, that meant we would be first on at 3.15, time enough to take photographs and answer questions from the coach loads of visitors.
A quick briefing from our friendly lift operator before SKYY and N.B. Penny Lane executed a sharp left turn into the entrance and stopped side by side just before the caisson. A guillotine dropped down behind us before another was lifted allowing both boats to gently move forward into the caisson, duplicate guillotines dropped behind us sealing us in. The massive framework loomed overhead, the cogs and gears wheels redundant now that the original hydraulic rams were back in action. We started to sink down the fifty foot drop in little jerks, the oil was hot and the check valves were working overtime. It takes about five minutes to complete the journey and whilst we went down an empty visitor trip boat ascended.
A few drips of water landed on SKYY as we exited and turned right. What a difference being on a river, so wide and grand compared to most canals. We travelled just a couple of miles before stopping for the day at the recommended moorings at Barnton Cut, a good choice.
1 comment:
Hi both, so you're now on the river weaver, I'll be checking your progress and experiences closely as river cruising is something that keep we keep putting off making a trip on the Anderton lift rather unnecessary - even though we would like to!!
Post a Comment