Another autumnal start for the run to Ellesmere Port; it began by passing below the City walls of Chester in a rock faced deep cutting leading to the Northgate staircase locks. Coming out of the bottom lock, the right angled turn into Tower Wharf had caused a few problems by the chunks taken out of the edging by the bridge; the canal opens out at the wharf proper and there are the Dee branch locks which allow passage onto the River Dee at certain times of the tide.
We filled the tank with water and looked around at the heritage of this area with the covered dry dock and Turners boatyard which dates from before 1828. The canal opens into countryside for a while before the tall signs of the petrochemical industry herald the approach to Ellesmer Port.
At one canalside factory, there was a 'Green Goddess' fire engine parked. You may remember the Firemen's strike of the 1980's - these useful machines were brought into front line service and acquitted themselves well. The main problem was caused by their lack of speed when attending a call, the rear mounted Coventry Climax Godiva pump had a greater through capacity than the more modern engines that they replaced temporarily.
The arrival at the Boat Museum was of course, in the wet; probably because we wanted to moor in the lower basin which meant going down two locks, therefore it must rain.
A little lad, James, and his mum were looking at Martlet in the lock. It transpired that they had come to the museum today for a ride on the trip boat, but it was not running. They rode down the locks with us instead and had their picnic lunch on board, after James had inspected the inside of the boat and looked at the toilet (he is a child remember!)they left us to continue their look around.
We plan to spend a while, looking at everything slowly in the Museum and perhaps travelling away by bus for a look around places locally.
