To Anderton Boat Lift & Down To The River Weaver

We left Middlewich on Tuesday morning after Sharon had had her hair cut, very nice she looks to, well she always does to me.
We had a lovely cruise along towards Anderton, on the way we passed this new marina being built, look how long the pontoon's our. Don't know when it will open but it looks almost complete apart from adding the water !!!.

We called at the service station in Anderton and filled with water and emptied what needed emptying.
We were lucky to get the last mooring in Anderton.
Wednesday morning I went down to book are passage on the famous boat lift and was given a 11.30 slot. I walked back to Tacet and we were about to have breakfast when Sharon heard the lift operator he told us we could go on the first lift down which was 10.00, so we quickly got ready and moved to the holding moorings. We were given the ok to follow another boat on to the lift.

The Lift From The River

The Boat lift was built in 1875 to lift boats up/down on to the Trent & Mersey Canal from the River Weaver. It is a fantastic piece of engineering which lasted nearly 100 years when it was found to be suffering from metal fatigue and was closed in 1983 . However after a lot of fund raising the lift re-opened in 2001.

The Lift in profile shows the wonderful engineering and simplicity of the structure.







The lift has 2 water caissons each holds two boats,one caisson  goes down and raises the other one.
Taking Tacet on to a River for the first time was very exciting and a joy to handle her as she sped along in the deep clear water (WONDERFUL).
We moored at Northwich and was very surprised how lovely the town is with lots of little interesting shops to look around. Sharon was very happy as there is a Waitrose right by the canal.

Waitrose by Night.

We Filled with Diesel from Halsall whilst at Northwich, she is a trading boat and covers the Four Countries,  it's good to support these guys as they offer a very needed service.





Thursday we left Northwich at lunchtime and headed down stream as we wanted to go through one of the locks, well at Saltersford lock we were surprised by the size of the lock it was massive glad we had a lock keeper to operate it.

Massive.

The Gates are leaking a little

We cruised up passed Acton Swing bridge and turned round as we would have been late for the next lock Dutton Lock.. We returned to Saltersford Lock and have some lovely moorings for the night.

Time Travelled Tuesday  3 Hrs Distance 8 Miles

Time Travelled Wednesday 1 Hrs Distance 1 Mile

Time travelled Thursday 3 Hrs 6 Miles 1 Massive Lock

Total Distance Travelled is 366.5. Miles 

75 Locks (Broad) 196 single locks and 17 tunnel's, 1 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 8193  yards   
Total Time 213.5 hours  

WE ARE LOVING IT  LOVING IT.