We woke up this morning to pile driving on the Waitrose site opposite us. I'm glad we were in Northwich over a weekend as I think the noise would have driven me potty.
We had to go and find a pet shop this morning as Muffin has managed to chew through his new blue waistcoat harness. That's two harnesses already this summer and he only wears them when we are under way. He now has a smart red one and we have already caught him trying the chew it a couple of times today. We also bought him a slip lead to try and make him walk to heel a bit - he had already started to get the hang of it by the time we got back to the boat.
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| Another new harness |
We had lunch and then set off downstream. We passed through Saltersford Lock where Richard was all lined up to go through the small lock but, in fact, we were using the big lock - you just can't win! I took the opportunity to cook a chilli as we were going out for a drink later with another of my cousins and I knew I wouldn't want to cook when we got back!
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| Bridge over the Dutton Lock weir stream |
We had arranged to meet Philip at The Leigh Arms by Acton Bridge so wanted to moor up there but it was pretty congested with 2 by 2 breasted up. There was one boat on its own, badly moored, which looked rather deserted so we breasted up with that. On closer inspection there were cobwebs all over the boat which led us to believe that it had been there for longer than 48 hours.
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| Chica |
Richard and I took Muffin for a walk down to Dutton Lock and saw the Dutton breach - we shall see it again from the canal in a few days time. We came across a sunken fishing boat called Chica. When we were here two years ago I asked the lock keeper about her and she had been a fishing boat which was converted into a hotel boat. She ran between Liverpool and the Anderton Boat Lift and spent the winter moored up at Dutton Lock. As with many wooden boats Chica leaked a bit. She had a wind powered bilge pump but in March 1993 there was a period of about 10 days or so when there was no wind which meant that the generator had not been able to top up the batteries sufficiently and the pump stopped working and within ½ hour Chica had sunk. (Both the above photos are from 2011)
We had a lovely hour or so with my cousin. We have seen a lot of my cousins while we have been in the area over the last 9 months but we are now heading away so it will no doubt be back to the once every couple of years visits again :-(
Northwich Town Swing Bridge to Acton Bridge Visitors Moorings
5.47 miles
1 lock
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