Wednesday 4th July 2018



After breakfast, we walked up the hill to visit the village of Daresbury. A beautiful place and the birthplace of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland.

The views from the top of the hill were amazing. We must have been looking out over the Widnes and Liverpool direction.

Daresbury itself, was a lovely old place. Attached to the church is the Lewis Carroll centre. Its all well worth a visit.

After having coffee and cake in the Dormouse Tea Rooms we headed back to the boat. Crossing over the A56 gave us a hint we were in Cheshire Set Country. The pedestrian crossing also had a crossing for horses, complete with dual height push buttons and a soft surface as is put down in children’s playgrounds.



                                    



Returning to the boat we had a admin session, all to do with winding up utilities on St Anns Road.

We then set off for a leisurely cruise to Lymm, passing under the thundering M6 and through Stockton Heath and Grappenhall, both largely suburbs of Warrington albeit on the opposite side of the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal. They are both really nice looking places from the canal.

We stopped off at Thorn Marine in Stockton Heath for rope and carabineers for making up a lead for the dog sitting on the back end and for splicing to the tyre fenders we had recently purchased. I do enjoy the ropework and wish I was better at it.

The building that houses Thorn Marine was under threat of demilition ten years ago when the area was being redeveloped. Happily, it was reprieved. Originally, this building marked the terminus of the Bridgewater canal in 1771 until the route through to Manchester was completed in 1776.

We were very lucky to get the last mooring in the stretch of canal through Lymm. We moored just ahead of a boat whose owner was also a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy, had also done his cadetship at Poplar Tech in the East End of London and stayed in King Ted’s Hostel as did I although he was a few years ahead of me.

        



Lymm is a delightful place. Of course we had been here before but it doesn’t lose its charm.  

Aaron was in touch by video showing us around their new house. He didn’t show us outside though because it was pouring with rain. We have been absolutely sizzling in hot sunshine now since long before moving onto the boat. However, within an hour of his call the clouds started to turn dark. But we didn’t get any rain, it was just muggy. The night was hot, hot, hot.



Thinking about our usage of electricity. The inverter uses a lot of electrical power due to its internal fan. The inverter however, is only required when 240V is used. It is only the washing machine, iron and when charging items (vacuum cleaner, phones, computers) that the 240V system is used.

Therefore, we do not need the inverter on all the time and in future will only switch it on when using the 240V system. After all, this was why a 12V TV was bought and so many 12V chargeable items, vacuum cleaner, car polisher etc  



Day Total: 0 locks; 8 miles; 0 Tunnels; engine running hours 3.0

Overall Total: 98 locks; 135 miles; 5 tunnels; engine running hours 86.3

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