Breaking Ice to Escape the Weaver
January 5 in England ⋅ 🌙 -2 °C
The Canal and River Trust had announced they would manually open Marsh Lock (whose electrics are broken) on 7th January. They made it clear they may not be opening it again for some time. Keen to leave the River Weaver and get back to touring the canals, we booked Rainboat's passage through Marsh and along the Manchester Ship Canal to the end of the Shropshire Union Canal at Ellesmere Port.
We then had some very sad news a few weeks before Christmas. Our good friend Andrea passed away unexpectedly in her sleep at the age of 59. We lived on Andrea's farm for nearly three years in between touring Europe and moving on to Rainboat. She left behind her partner Simon, with four horses, two collies and two geese. We put Rainboat into Northwich Quay marina, hired a car and moved ourselves and the four furries up to the isolated Northumberland farm for a fortnight over Christmas and New Year, staying in the old static van Andrea had bought. Vicky helped look after the horses and we tried to be around for Simon.
Staying in the van in sub zero temperatures was tough but it wouldn't have been fair to move our furries into the house. Whiskers was scared of the collies, Tiger was scared of the younger dog Milo and Leo suffered from being left alone while we did the horses or spent time with Simon. We hope our stay did Simon some good.
Three days before we were due to leave the Weaver we drove back to Northwich. The three hour journey took five hours because of the M6 being closed to repair a railway bridge. Despite freezing temperatures it was 2.5°C on board when we arrived because Will's wonderful friend Adrian Chattaway, who was also at Northwich Quay marina had been running Rainboat's engine most days to charge the batteries and putting the heating on for an hour to keep her from icing up. We'd met Adrian and Alison of Narrowboat Yorkshire Tyke on the Llangollen Canal and they'd celebrated Will's 70th birthday with him at Ellesmere. Adrian had welcomed Will into the group of boaters who met every week at Baron's Lounge for 'Thirsty Thursdays' when we met again on the Weaver.
As Will ferried luggage from the hire van to the boat it began to snow. By bed time there was a proper covering and we woke the following morning to a world blanketed in white. After returning the car, shopping and dropping off a 'thank you' bottle of JD for Adrian he piloted Rainboat out of the quay and downriver for the last time. Despite the cold temperatures the channel hadn't frozen and we assumed that because there was a flow, there wouldn't be a problem. Well you know what they say about assuming don't you...
Just after passing Anderton Boat Lift we encountered our first stretch of ice. It was thicker than we'd ever traveled through on the canals but we needed to keep going because we'd arranged for CRT lockies to work us through Saltersford and Dutton Locks the following morning. The boat shuddered and lurched as the ice creaked and snapped at the bow, scraping along the newly blacked steel hull. Whiskers darted under the bed, then emerged to cuddle with Vicky, Leo reacted as he usually does to anything unknown, by barking his head off and Tiger trembled and clung to Vicky, despite anti anxiety medication we'd given her before setting off. The ice continued for a couple of hundred metres and we managed to get through. It was sometimes necessary to reverse Rainboat to build up speed and ram the thicker parts. We encountered several more patches where the sun hadn't thawed the frozen water, the last being at our destination; the floating pontoon at Saltersford Lock. It was too thick to break here, so we improvised by tying up to the high concrete wall at the lock entrance. We had to lift the dogs up and down for their walks but they weren't that keen to be outside anyway as Leo was too cold and the snow clumped painfully in Tiger's paws. We kept the cats in for safety, much to Whiskers' disapproval.
It rained heavily overnight which helped to thaw some of the ice but it was still a struggle to get into the lock when the CRT arrived the following morning. Vicky stood on the bow with the barge pole, spearing it through the ice to weaken it in the direction we wanted to turn. She did this again when we reached Dutton Lock. The ice was 2-3 inches thick here and very difficult to get through. Unbeknown to us a person called Sam Harmer was out to capture photos of the snow covered landscape with his drone. He took a few photos and a video of our exploits which you can see below. Thanks Sam!
Once through Dutton Lock well moored on the lock landing and rested, giving the ice ahead a little more time to thaw. With our passage through Marsh Lock booked for 11:20am the following day we wanted to get a couple more miles under our belts, so 'cracked on' after an hour or so.
A couple of miles from Marsh Lock the light fading. Will tried to reach the bank by the boat club, but again the ice was too thick, forcing him to reverse up and moor at the floating pontoon behind the restored Daniel Adamson tug boat; now a popular trip and event boat.
That night a front of warmer air and rain moved in and thankfully melted most of the ice so it was easily broken by Rainboat's bow. It unfortunately brought with it winds of 18mph with gusts of 33mph 😪 Our usual cutoff for travel is 15mph but needs must. Will wrapped up warm and ploughed through the now thinner patches of ice to arrive safely at Marsh Lock with an hour to spare before it was due to be opened. Well done Will!Read more