Northwich 2 day Visitor Moorings to above Saltersford Lock
With all the rain yesterday we both were checking the river levels this morning. The Northwich reach had actually gone down, but above and below had risen, obviously there had been someone lifting sluices on weirs to control things.
A little bit of extra time was used to start catching up on the blog. It takes time, usually whilst having breakfast, but on longer more interesting days (well more interesting for me) it can take a while longer. Certainly sifting through photos eats up time. Plus early starts to cruising limits writing time, so I had a lot to catch up today.
Time to stock up on food for a few days. The nearest supermarket is Waitrose so we went to see what yellow stickers there might be.
Crossing Town Bridge we noticed the different gates at either end. On the west bank is a sliding gate that crosses the road to stop traffic, on the east side there are two gates that hinge closed. Then the bridge would be able to swing to allow taller boats to pass through. The bridge was opened in 1899, designed by J.A.Saner and was the first road swing bridge on floating pontoons and the first electrically operated swing bridge in Britain. In 1924 it was closed for several months for repairs and strengthening during the period known as the Northwich ‘big lift’ when buildings and roads were raised to combat subsidence. In 1998 further works were undertaken, the bridge being lifted off and put in a car park for repair. A crane was brought in which had been used to build the Millenium Dome, but the weight of the Town Bridge at 330 tonnes and was too heavy for the crane.
Back on board we had lunch before pushing off, we wanted to find a mooring for Tilly. Mick winded Oleanna, a lady watched from the marina and congratulated him on his expertise, then we were heading down stream back towards the boat lift. The new pontoon was even more chock a block than yesterday, NB Lyndsey Jane’s stern sticking out around someone’s bow fender. The pontoon below the boat lift on the other hand had lots of space, but we wanted a better mooring still, no pontoon would suit us, and Tilly better.
Yesterday the flag at the boat lift had hung down, not a breath of wind to go with the rain, today it was dry but blustery. Waterway Routes showed us three possible moorings around a bend downstream of the lift. We passed a weir guarded over by cormorants and under another swing bridge.
The first mooring had potential, we’d have been on our own. The second the bank was a touch higher, more difficult for me. The third was longer and lower, already with two boats moored, but with bollards, grassy field and bunny potential above it, this would do. We winded to face the current and pulled in, positioning ourselves in the middle away from the other boats, but space for two more to pull in either side of us.
Rules given, the doors were opened. Hmmm! It would be good if I didn’t have to share this outside with woofers! I’m not sure Tilly even made it into the field above, at least she had some outside time.
I managed to get up to date with the blog during the afternoon. Then our attention turned to our cruising plan for the rest of this year. Today a notice regarding the Huddersfield Narrow had looked promising, this route would cut down the miles of our cruise back to Yorkshire, but would our current set up work there? I’ve never had to clear the prop on Oleanna, in fact I’ve never actually cleared a prop on any boat! Would I even be able to reach the prop to clear it? This is one question that needs answering before committing to going over the HNC.
Ease of transport links are important over the next six weeks as appointments and engagements need to be met at different ends of the country. We also want to meet up with good friends and need to give them an estimate of where we might be. Having three possible routes is making this really quite tricksy. I think tomorrow we’ll need to knuckle down and make some decisions.
0 locks, 3.2 miles, 2 winds, 1 straight on, 2 boxes wine, 1 outside rejected, 2 loose ropes, 0.7m, 3 ways, but which one to go for?
