From an ancient city to historic boats via the Northgate Shuffle

Wednesday, 08 April 2009 20:08

Our first hurdle this morning was Northgate staircase of 3 locks. As we went along we rehearsed the scenario - it is quite a while since we have been through such a staircase! Fortunately there are instructions top and bottom, with a graphic, so really there is no excuse to get it wrong!

Top lock full, next two empty is the mantra. What a view!

I checked and needed to empty both the middle lock and the bottom lock as a hire boat had just come up - we had a near miss with them on the bend just before the Bridge of Sighs.

As we were going down the top lock two working boats drew up on the top lock landing and another hire boat arrived at the bottom! So we had a "Northgate shuffle"!

The crews from the WBs came down to help and directed the traffic! As they were 70 footers they had to make sure that everything ran smoothly otherwise they could get stuck under the gates.

So the hire boat came up as we went down and we met in the middle lock



Meanwhile the WBs filled the top lock and came into it behind us, meeting the hire boat as they rose up the middle lock. As we emptied the bottom lock another hire boat arrived to go up. The last we saw of them they decided to let the WBs come down before attempting the staircase.

After that fun, it was all plain sailing
Looking back shows the old dry dock and the first lock down to the River Dee

The canal  then enters some lovely countryside again and even though it becomes more industrialised as Ellesmere Port approaches we were unanimous in agreeing that we were really glad we decided to go for the "Head of Navigation".

There are quite a number of "official" mooring sites with rings, mostly 48 hour, so if a quiet night in the countryside appealed we could always return to them. Chester Zoo moorings would be quite good as there is a bus into Chester from there.

We arrived at Ellesmere Port and the Boat Museum, winded and took the mooring that another boat vacated. There are two 48 hour moorings here for visitors to the Museum.



Epiphany has had a few compliments in the short time we have been here, including one from one of the volunteers. It is quite something as we are amongst some of the oldest and most fascinating boats and in a place where they know about boats!

We went to explore the Museum - it is well worth a visit and better than the one at Gloucester, at least we think so! From our mooring we can just make out the bridge at Runcorn and across the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey towards Liverpool!



Some of the boats that will be here for the weekend have started arriving this evening - Madeley, Mignonette and MB Swallow.

I will tell our story of the Museum in a later blog - it has taken all this evening to sort out the photos! There are more photos of this section from Chester to Ellesmere here.

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