Ferry, on the Mersey.

0 Locks, 11 ½ Miles. Now moored at Devil's Garden.

Despite a light shower of rain this morning we left Dutton Lock and headed down river towards Weston Marsh Lock. For a while the weather stayed dry but the further down river we got the situation began to change quite rapidly. By the time we reached Weston Marsh lock we had had quite a few good down pours.

Despite this we moored against the wall above the lock and very gingerly went ashore. The reason I say gingerly was because the wall was higher than our roof and the only ladder was 4 rungs recessed into the wall and a hand rail on the top of the wall. It wasn't the easiest of lock ladders to climb especially in the wet conditions.

After having a good look at the Manchester Ship Canal and taking some photo's we returned to the boat for a warm drink and check out the Internet. As it was a good signal we stayed for a while to update the blog before setting off back up stream. We decided not to stay over night because  the smell/fumes from the ICI plant was upsetting Dot's breathing even though we were up wind of the place. Just as we started to back away from the wall to turn upstream we caught site of what was presumably a Mersey ferry boat heading up the Ship Canal towards Runcorn and neither of us had our camera to hand. Damn!

As we neared Frodsham Cut we spotted another narrowboat winding and heading back up stream. We followed him to Devil's Garden where he also moored. Initially I tried to moor in front of this other boat but found submerged rocks in the way so I had to go about again and come in behind him which proved successful but only just, as we can see submerged rocks just under the bow.

1469 locks, 3081 miles, 51 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006