We had a relatively early start pulling pins at 07.45 from our mooring at Barnton and headed to Northwich on the river Weaver. The plan was to spend the day in the town ,do a food shop and the odd bottle of wine of course ,then let Carolyn have some retail therapy and then set off first thing tomorrow morning and head back up the boatlift. While Carolyn was in town I walked from our mooring with our rubbish only to be greeted with this sight. Not being sure how to get to the bins I just dumped ours with all the rest. I was told by a fellow boater who was on the water point that the problem had been reported to Canal and River Trust.
The following morning and with the boat lift not opening until 09.15 we left our mooring at 08.30 and arrived at the lift at 09.00. We got booked in with a time slot of 10.00.
Waiting at the bottom of the lift I saw this picture of commercial boats working on the river Weaver. Believe it or not this picture was taken in the 1970s. Wouldn’t it be great to see this happening again now. Mind you there could be a problem with some of the leisure boats which cruise on the Weaver.
We had a good steady trip up the boat lift and when we got to the top we had a bit of a chat with the operator of the lift. He explained that the lift breaks down many times a year and told us that 99 % of the breakdowns were caused by software problems. The lift is now linked to a computer system and everything has to be just right for it to operate. I was a bit surprised to hear that the system they used was SCADA ,a system that I used for over 20 years when I worked in the water industry. The other bizarre thing he said was that the SCADA system would work for another hundred years before it needed replacing….comments from any ICA men or women would be interesting.
Leaving the lift and back on The Trent and Mersey canal and we pass loads of signs like this. Im not sure what they produce in the canal side factory but we wont be hanging around here for very long.
You may remember a few weeks ago we saw this boat with all the panels on it’s Port side and I didn’t know at the time if it had panels on the Starboard side as well as it passed us. Well here is the Starboard side and it looks like all the panels are wired up to the batteries.
After a long day not helped by going through Middlewich on hire boat change over day for the Anderson fleet of boats we turned right and back onto the Middlewich branch . We were a bit undecided whether to carry on down the T and M or cut through and join The Shropshire Union Canal. We both love the Shroppie and with Carolyn not that happy about going through Stoke the decision was made.
Not long before mooring for the night before Aqueduct marina we spotted this chap . He seemed very tame so I was wondering if he was a young Kingfisher. Tomorrow and it’s back on the Shroppie and heading South for Winter, Just like the Birds.
Happy Days
No comments:
Post a Comment