Boatdate: 15072020
Locaton: Salthouse Dock

It's the leaving of Liverpool day. It's been a lovely stay and we will definitely be back for another visit at some point. We are up by 7am and getting everything ready for departure. It's a mizzling sort of day so by 8am we are togged in wet weather gear and warming up the engine. We cast off just after 8 and proceed through Albert Dock to the Mann Island Lock. We are asked to wait in the lock to share it with the boat following us up the Link. 'Dreamcatcher' arrives five minutes later and, as it turns out, we will be bumping into Dreamcatcher (not literally), all the way up the canal as far as Parbold. The Link passage is uneventful if a little soggy. There are not as many CRT staff on duty this morning so Olly from Dreamcatcher and I work the Stanley Locks together with the CRT staff walking ahead to prepare the next one for our approach. Dreamcatcher have a GoPro mounted on their bow and later sent us this video of our passage which compresses and hour and a half into under a minute of video. So here it is.

Next stop is Litherland services to bunker water and some grub for the next few days from the supermarket. The swing bridge at Litherland required kicking into submission but we eventually got it open and Dreamcatcher (which had also stopped) and Pan91 proceeded on together bunny hopping all the swing bridges en route. taking it in turns to operate them. There was an hour to kill at Hancocks Swing Bridge (No9) which operates on a timer switch only allowing passage of canal traffic in off peak times. Shortly after 6pm we are through and on our way to Melling to more or less the same mooring spot we used on the way down. The weather had improved considerably by then and we spent a quiet evening watching lots of bees being disgruntled at the presence of our boat near their nest, a nest I looked for but never found.