Location: Melling to Salthouse Dock, Liverpool
A year ago today we bought Pan91 from the previous owner Fred Hall who very sadly passed away last December. He will be sorely missed by all his family and we grew very fond of Fred in the short time we knew him. RIP Fred. I still occasionally listen to his gorgeous brummy accent from the recording I took as Fred showed us around Pan91 explaining all her foibles to us.
For the purposes of celebration we have brought along a bottle of bubbly which we will crack open on arrival in Salthouse Dock. We sail on through Aintree and stop in Litherland at the services to bunker water and go to the nearby Tescos. We meet Tim on board the lovely old boat Cymbelstern who is also sailing into Liverpool today and we agree to meet up at the top of the Stanley Dock locks to go down them together and save a bit of water.
Arriving at the start of the Liverpool Link we are all excited to discover what it entails and we are not dissapointed. The immense size of the Mersey docklands area is overwhelming as are the gargantuan old warehouses lining the route. CRT volunteers are on hand to help us down the four locks leading into Stanley Dock and then into Collingwood Dock and then Salisbury Dock then a left hander into what has become affectionately known as Sid's Ditch, a cutting leading towards Princes Dock. Sid is, I understand, one of the CRT volunteers often on hand to guide boats into Liverpool. Here is a picture of Sid courtesy of Ian Jamieson from the narrowboat Free Spirit.
After Sid's Ditch we pass by some fancy waterside apartments, under Princes Parade and on into Princes Dock. Then there is a bendy tunnel which pops out directly in front of the Liver Building, a very impressive sight from this perspective. A couple of small tunnels then lead to the Mann Island lock permitting a very small drop in level down into Canning Dock then through the bridges into Albert Dock and finally to our mooring pontoon in Salthouse Dock. It's all eye poppingly impressive and highly recommended and, at the moment anyway, a seven day stay in Salthouse Dock is free as is an electric mains hook up on the pontoons.
Boating through the link is not difficult and the CRT volunteers will assist boaters with guidance if needed but the route is pretty straight forward.
Once safely through the link we moor up at our allocated berth on the pontoon and it's time to get the bubbly out, not only to celebrate the Panniversary, but also all of our birthdays which have occurred during lockdown and it is the first time we have seen Ben for months and months.
and......
After a suitable quantity of bubbly I drag out the mains cable, rewire the batteries to take power from the charger, (I had previously disconnected these leads when cleaning the battery bank out and not bothered to reconnect as we never use mains power on Pan), and plug in. Amazingly enough it all works and it's FREE.
Ben, as usual, gets the kayak out and paddles off to explore the dock complex. We just chill out and take in our surroundings. All rather splendid really.
Even better, Ben cooks our tea. Yum.
A random batch of photos taken during our passage through the Link follows.
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