I've come back 2 years to watch the bits from Trent and Mersey up to Runcorn and then Moore - and the the bits on the Weaver to Dutton Lock. I ride these sections several times a week on my bike and it was wonderful seeing it from the wet part of the route! ALso lovely seeing a lot of the boats that I know so well - some in different places. If you want more info about the museum - I volunteered then for a year or so before the Pandemic - it is actually in Widnes - but only just over the Silver Jubilee Bridge. The information is rather kid based but if you ask there are people who know all the geek stuff - well worth a visit anyway. You can also see the start of the old Sankey Canal that used to go to St. Helens from Widnes. Just moorings for a few boats nowadays but there are supposed to plans to re-open it and relink Widnes to the network - eventually! Anyway - thanks - lovely to see the canal I know so well!
The inverted U-bends in the pipelines are to take up length changes dues to temperature variations. If you build a long straight pipe between two fixed ends then heat it, it will get longer and spring out sideways. If you cool it, it will shrink and end up under tension, possibly breaking. The bends allow it to flex in a controlled manner. All of that chemical industry is based on chlorine made from salt. The sodium chloride is broken down into chlorine and sodium in huge electrolytic cells, hence the presence of a power station. The big spherical tanks contain large quantities of chlorine. The cells use liquid mercury as one electrode (the sodium dissolves in it) and over the years, it is said, tonnes of mercury have been "lost" into the waterway. Probably best not to water your plants with the water!
Fascinating! We didn’t show it, but I found a few places where there’s some really quite fascinating - and substantially wrong - colors where there’s some pools of runoff near the canal... blues and greens I’d have thought we’re copper salts, but lots of smells reminiscent of days working near a fume hood in university. Thanks for explaining the expansion loops ... makes perfect sense now I think about it! Didn’t look very flexible from a distance, but seems obvious now! M
The pipelines bring to mind when my Dad was in US Navy and pipes for steam heating buildings on base would run from a central power plant and have those vertical loops for expansion and contraction.
You mentioned the old Runcorn and Weston Canal, which was filled in in the sixties. There's a campaign to reopen that, and the "Ten Lock Flight" which took you up to the end of the Runcorn arm of the Bridgewater. As you said, if that link was opened you would have a nice little "South Cheshire Ring", including the Anderton lift - it might bring a bit more business to Runcorn Old Town, which sorely needs it.
Knowing that you are interested in the history of the areas you visit I thought you would be interested in the boat just after the swing bridge at Sutton Weaver (7.07) she is the 1903 Steam tug Daniel Adamson (affectionally known as the Danny). She is presently undergoing restoration by a band of enthusiastic volunteers. Daniel Adamson was a founding father of the Manchester Ship Canal co and was the first Chairman of the company. The tug was built as the Ralph Brocklebank but later became the Daniel Adamson and was modified for taking VIP’s and company directors for trips along the Manchester Ship Canal and Manchester Docks. She is still steam powered and her interior is being restored to her Art Deco style.
Dutton Railway viaduct is interesting and so is that wood timber arch bridge shortly before it at 5:31. Yes, I know I keep commenting on the interesting bridges, but the bridges keep on being interesting! :D
I used to volunteer there - it may not go into the details that you want but there are people there that can tell you anything about the local chemical works - worth a visit - also the end of the old Sankey canal which is only navigable for a few hundred yards and just used for mooring Also - I believe that there are plans afoot to resurrect the canal system in Runcorn and maybe complete the loop you were talking about
I worked for several years in the R&D labs of the chemical works at Runcorn. Their origins were based on salt as a raw material. Electrolysed to make sodium hydroxide )Lye) The process also makes an equal amount of chlorine, and the R&D in the early days was to find commercial uses for the chlorine.. Best known are bleach (sodium hypochlorite) dry cleaning fluids, , vinyl chloride (hens PVC - vinyl) Also arcrtons (freons in the USA) which had widespread use as refrigerants until recently. ANd many others. At the lab at the works below the boat lift, Polyethelyne was discovered in tje 1930s,
Ooh, a veritable soup of very dangerous things to be near! Sounds like interesting work! As for the polyethylene... so that’s where all the shopping bags originally come from! M
I see someone else had the correct answer regarding the pipe offsets to allow for expansion/contraction. In my misspent youth (as opposed to the misspent rest of my life) I worked for several years painting that type of steel infrastructure. I usually ended up on the really high bits (OK) or the tight inside corners (much less OK) where I'd end up wearing much of the paint. Nice cruise video, glad you had a nice day.
A great video. Interesting that you are from LA. You will know a relative of mine, Kathy Ireland (ex-actress and model from Santa Barbara) . He father (my uncle) who sadly died about three years ago, was from Garston, South Liverpool which is more or less opposite where you entered the Manchester Ship canal on the other side of the river.
I vaguely remember Kathy Ireland as a model much of the high school jocks were into, but was actually in Canada for much of her career, moving back to LA later. Stuart, or pilot, pointed out a large set of docks at Garston, but I can’t remember what he said they did there. M
Have you come access any Mink yet, they obviously aren’t indigenous and harm other wildlife, but are certainly exciting to see. I’ve seen them on the river wey.
We’ve only seen one, we think... it was just a flash of black on the Trent & Mersey before coming down the Anderton Boat Lift. Yeah apparently someone had the daft idea to farm American Mink without realizing it’s essentially impossible to keep those little guys in a cage. M
Ferrets are MUCH bigger than stoats - stoats and weasels are very much of a size, and the ferret lines up with the bigger ones like the mink and the pine marten. I would guess that a mink is most likely what you saw - I have seen them several times along the Bridgewater.
We're hoping that you can make it to the Bridgewater (haven't looked ahead yet). MIL is from Stockton Heath and we've done the canal a few years ago. Not many locks, maybe none. And a great week.
Great vlog as ever but this brought back memories. As you may know I drove petrol tankers for years and sadly a friend of mine had a crash one evening and his tanker went over the bridge (M56) that you pointed out. RIP Vinnie always remembered
We pull out on to the river weaver and give a quick toot to warn ........ You are likely to come across proper big boats here. Firstly large craft physically may not be able to stop, secondly if they are over 500 tons they do not have to stop. Be careful big boats play by different rules.
These days large traffic is extremely rare; from what I read almost all freight and commercial traffic ceased in 2013, to the point where swinging of the bridges is now something that gets a newspaper story. So while there are some larger boats still operating on the Weaver, the few that do are apparently incorporated into the operation of the Lift, so staff won’t let you into the junction unless it’s reasonably clear of traffic. M
Well, thankfully, you’ve got to remember the history of most of that beautiful scenery... there used to be several more large chemical and industrial works along the Weaver, they’ve been torn down and removed. With luck the danger stays isolated and eventually shrinks back as we start thinking more about these extraction industries. M
To answer your question about the pipes going up, over and then down Michael, the pipes do that to allow for expansion. If they were straight, the whole line would buckle.
Checking the map, you were only about 1 lock from the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Well, there is that spot of water you would have to go across ;) Also, are there enough moorings to continuously moor on that section of canal for the winter?
In theory you could overwinter on the Weaver, but there’s not a lot of mooring space so it could only be a relatively small number of boats. Additionally the locks go pretty dormant during the winter months and you need to arrange ahead for movements, so given the relative dearth of services like waste and water it could be a bit difficult. M
It's ocol to see you caught that feature of the pipes. It's for expansion from heat, whether the heat is from the contents or the sun. The pipe would break in the long straight runs they are doing. The pipe can flex in the hoops without breaking.
Easily one of my favourite of your vlogs, I imagine most who take the Anderton lift do a swift U turn or head upstream but great to see the Runcorn reaches of the Weaver and yes a great pity that the connection back on to the Bridgwater is no longer there as that would truly open up this route for one and all.
Thank you! We loved the Weaver for so many reason. It was so quiet after a busy summer in the Trent & Mersey and you have so much more space. The scenery was beautiful for the most part and the bridges were majestic. Even the chemical plant was worth passing! Highly recommend the Weaver!
That large boat at Sutton Weaver is the SS Daniel Adamson. We recently did a cruise on that up the Weaver to the boat lift, very peaceful and pleasant scenery. Know what you mean about the chemical works - sort of ominous and foreboding, as if you half expect something to explode while you’re passing. I did the Manchester Ship Canal cruise once and the various chemical works extend for even more miles further up the ship canal.
Hoping to do the MSC ourselves! We didn’t capture it in the video, but it was the sudden deafening blasts of valves opening that was the most ominous! Whole thing sounded like a kettle about to blow! M
Never been on river Weaver and it looks well worth visiting... I love those railway semaphore signals on the river locks. Pity you cannot get as far as the Delamere Basin, although it is hardly a picturesque holiday destination. Sutton Weaver swing bridge used to be a real driving bottle-neck before the M56 was built.. many years ago.
Yeah the Basin is apparently owned by the chemical works... rather too bad, there’s a church in there that looks quite fascinating, apparently built to serve the needs of the dockworkers back in the day, sitting on its own little island or peninsula. I was hoping there might be some information about how one could arrange a visit, but there was nothing but the bridge and a big private property sign. M
Hi Andrew I agree that it could be a mink nasty buggers the female is small enough to get into a water voles burrow and Kill all it finds, These animal rights people have a lot to answer when they released them .Cheers
Per Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust: “A widespread modern misconception is that the UK’s wild population of American mink originated from mass releases of mink from fur farms by animal rights activists in the 1990s [but in] fact, the wild population was established decades earlier from multiple escapes (and perhaps deliberate releases) all over the country. Mink farms had been established in the UK from the 1920s, [and mink] were first confirmed to be breeding in the wild in 1956. By December 1967, wild mink were present in over half the counties of England and Wales, and in much of lowland Scotland.” See, that was my thought... the moment you try to farm a mink you’ve guaranteed yourself a wild mink population. The animal rights activists had nothing to do with establishing the breeding population here. M
Do enjoy the river as the reasons listed... it's more natural and aids to the view., all ... I must say.... Aids me mental health..... Current is its twitch, lived on the Sacramento River in California... talk about currents, especially stormy times. Cheers.. Capt. Cass...."Lani". Must tell you ... I follow you to get the skinny on the inland waterways because you are better so far at showing facilities and history on what passes by... informative and very interesting... find my jaw drop at times but well worth the view. chemical plants scare me.....call me ignorant, but it is what it is.
Been to the Sacramento before, and the Kern... very different kinds of rivers from the extremely heavily managed ones here, where they’ve complete modified the original course to make it navigable and control floods. As for the chemical plants, these ones aren’t too worrisome, it’s all salts production... it’s the petroleum refineries that scare the heck out of me! Too many flammables! M
Quick question, not sure if its been answered before. I know that there is a speed limit on the canals, but what about the rivers? Obviously fighting current you have to go faster / slower. I am use to no speed limit on rivers here in the US. Idle / no wake speed could get really boring on the long wide stretches on the rivers. Do you run your diesel at full power every now and then? While I was moving a 24M yacht with twin 11 liter engines the manufacture of the engines wanted a full power run for at least 30 mins every 2-3 days. It helps keep the carbon from building up as normally those engines are run at such a low power on the trawler. At cruise when crossing the ocean we were running about 8 kts and at full power with all 800 HP going we broke the sound barrier at about 11.5 kts. Our 2300NM trip took about 12 days non stop. Some great scenery over there for sure. I am working through all your videos as well so I am sure there will be a few more questions from a currently land locked arm chair quarterback in Dallas TX. Thanks for all the work you do on your videos, great to watch the world go by. In the mid-late 80's my mother spend about a month on the canals, unfortunately she has passed about 12 years go and I don't know what route she took or where she went exactly. Back then with the $15/min collect calls back to the states she didn't call much, just once a while to say she was having a great time and everything was good. 👍
Hi, love your VLOG's. Just a quick question. What kind of camera do you use for your videos? It comes over here in the US on UA-cam as high quality. Are you shooting in 1080P or 4K then downsizing? Thanks!
We’re using two iPhones and two GoPro Hero 4s... the time lapse footage is shot at 2.7K and downrezzed or cropped to 1080p. The video footage is already 1080p. Unfortunately we simply couldn’t work in 4K, the laptop is good, but not that good, and the storage costs would be unsustainable. M
I know y'all are probably always thinking about content for your vlog. I have a suggestion. It is interesting to see wildlife along the tow path. Much of which is nocturnal so I expect there is a lot more to be seen than you normally chance across during your travels. My suggestion is to get a trail cam to set up as you moor overnight at various spots.
I’ve thought about it... my guess is we’d mainly end up looking at a lot of shots of ducks, nighttime pedestrians, dogs squatting, and in the cities the occasional drunk couple attempting to have sex... but maybe someday I’ll find a good deal on one! M
Arabic, actually, specifically Eastern Arabic though the actual digits used happen to be essentially identical to those used in Parsi and Urdu scripts. Most people would read it as 300211, but I’ve written it as you’d read out the individual numbers as words from right to left; one one two zero zero three, or 112003... or 1/1/2003. Which was, to try and simplify a rather long story, the date of my first major version bump, when I went from Michael 1.x to Michael 2.0. Most of my tattoos represent a sort of version up. M
Great vlog guys. Dark ferrets by the river are probably Minks, you see them a lot by water. The chemical works is amazingly big isn't it? I used to drive across North Wales and it took AGES until you lost sight of it! Looking forward to seeing you on the Lanky :). Ian
Thank you! We couldn’t believe how long it took to pass the chemical works, and then we had to pass it again the other way! Loved the Weaver, looking forward to the Lanky!
I was talking to one of the lockies at Hunts lock today, he informs me that the lower gates in the small lock are being changed this winter, Not sure on the date or for how long it will take but they only use the smaller lock meaning that Hunts lock will not be passable.. I know you'll have moved on by then but thought its worth a mention..
@@MinimalList From what he was saying they don't use the large one, not sure if there is a problem with it or they don't need to use a lock of that size...it's huge !
I think the lock staff on the river locks are brilliant and really look after you. Great footage. my boat performs better on the rivers as 4mph is really s bit slow for it. Thanks guys.
We got lucky. Many have been avoiding the Weaver this year due to the Saltersford lock having been out of commission for so long! Lovely to see it so empty! M
Hi Jo and Michael, Do you know the purpose of the railway type semaphore signals? there were two positioned at each end of the locks, they looked like they were in the proceed aspect. The video is great, as usual, keep up the good work. A fan from Aus.
Don’t know for certain, as they don’t seem to be in use anymore, at least not for narrowboat traffic, but more likely than not they were used exactly like railway signals to let the larger boats know to stop and wait or enter. M
Nice trip. Great to see the bridges. Like the stone work ....... still standing the test of time. Your comments add to what you show along the way. Question.... do you know the time interval used in the time-laps the camera is set to?
@@MinimalList The site at Runcorn is the former ICI campus, comprising of the Castner-Kellner and Rocksavage sites, and up on the top of the hill "The Heath" which was ICI's R&D centre in the region. Nowadays with ICI dissolved and absorbed into several different companies, Innovyn is one of the main companies active on that site, Mostly this is making chlorine-based chemicals and vinyls. The other major tenant is Mexichem Fluor. Both are related to the brine pumping and salt-production activities further upstream at Northwich - they provided the raw feedstocks for the Runcorn works. There are also two power stations, Rocksavage Power which is a CCGT (Gas Turbine) power station, and the Energy from Waste Plant which burns Manchester's black-bag non-recyclable rubbish. Stanlow Oil Refinery you would see by passing through Marsh Lock and turning left, toward Liverpool, on the Manchester Ship.
Well in our case the videos help. A lot of people get a metal badge to affix to the boat, but since you can order them online these days that seems a bit game-able. M
That was very different - the river made a nice change, and you were lucky with the weather. As usual I had a look at your route on the ordnance survey maps on www.streetmap.co.uk/ . I'm pretty well travelled in the UK but you go to all sorts of odd places I've never seen - it's really interesting!
@@MinimalList Yes, I wouldn't have known you were at sea level running right alongside the Mersey estuary at Runcorn without the map, and it helped me make sense of you comment about vessels waiting in the canal for the tide. As well as being interesting and entertaining viewing,, your site is very educational.
I've come back 2 years to watch the bits from Trent and Mersey up to Runcorn and then Moore - and the the bits on the Weaver to Dutton Lock.
I ride these sections several times a week on my bike and it was wonderful seeing it from the wet part of the route!
ALso lovely seeing a lot of the boats that I know so well - some in different places.
If you want more info about the museum - I volunteered then for a year or so before the Pandemic - it is actually in Widnes - but only just over the Silver Jubilee Bridge. The information is rather kid based but if you ask there are people who know all the geek stuff - well worth a visit anyway. You can also see the start of the old Sankey Canal that used to go to St. Helens from Widnes. Just moorings for a few boats nowadays but there are supposed to plans to re-open it and relink Widnes to the network - eventually!
Anyway - thanks - lovely to see the canal I know so well!
Glad we could show it to you from the water! M
Good that you appreciated the chemical works rather than dismiss it. My Mum grew up inWeston village overlooking it.
The inverted U-bends in the pipelines are to take up length changes dues to temperature variations. If you build a long straight pipe between two fixed ends then heat it, it will get longer and spring out sideways. If you cool it, it will shrink and end up under tension, possibly breaking. The bends allow it to flex in a controlled manner. All of that chemical industry is based on chlorine made from salt. The sodium chloride is broken down into chlorine and sodium in huge electrolytic cells, hence the presence of a power station. The big spherical tanks contain large quantities of chlorine. The cells use liquid mercury as one electrode (the sodium dissolves in it) and over the years, it is said, tonnes of mercury have been "lost" into the waterway. Probably best not to water your plants with the water!
I live near Oil fields. The really long runs (7 or 8 miles), they actually hang on chains to keep from wearing out the pipe moving on the ground.
Fascinating! We didn’t show it, but I found a few places where there’s some really quite fascinating - and substantially wrong - colors where there’s some pools of runoff near the canal... blues and greens I’d have thought we’re copper salts, but lots of smells reminiscent of days working near a fume hood in university.
Thanks for explaining the expansion loops ... makes perfect sense now I think about it! Didn’t look very flexible from a distance, but seems obvious now! M
The pipelines bring to mind when my Dad was in US Navy and pipes for steam heating buildings on base would run from a central power plant and have those vertical loops for expansion and contraction.
The ship canal is the only UK canal that I have been on, in 1980 twice bringing wood pulp from Norway to a paper mill that no longer exists.
Heck of a place to start your acquaintance with English canals! M
You mentioned the old Runcorn and Weston Canal, which was filled in in the sixties. There's a campaign to reopen that, and the "Ten Lock Flight" which took you up to the end of the Runcorn arm of the Bridgewater. As you said, if that link was opened you would have a nice little "South Cheshire Ring", including the Anderton lift - it might bring a bit more business to Runcorn Old Town, which sorely needs it.
Apparently the work to build a new Runcorn Ring has just been approved. The locks won’t be restored, but there will be an inclined plane, it seems! M
Knowing that you are interested in the history of the areas you visit I thought you would be interested in the boat just after the swing bridge at Sutton Weaver (7.07) she is the 1903 Steam tug Daniel Adamson (affectionally known as the Danny). She is presently undergoing restoration by a band of enthusiastic volunteers.
Daniel Adamson was a founding father of the Manchester Ship Canal co and was the first Chairman of the company.
The tug was built as the Ralph Brocklebank but later became the Daniel Adamson and was modified for taking VIP’s and company directors for trips along the Manchester Ship Canal and Manchester Docks. She is still steam powered and her interior is being restored to her Art Deco style.
Ahh, nice. One of the lockies mentioned she was being moved up towards the boat lift at some point, but didn’t have many details! Thanks! M
Very good video. I find it interesting the amount of industry that is still based on waterways
Yep, there’s still work being done, near the canals! M
Dutton Railway viaduct is interesting and so is that wood timber arch bridge shortly before it at 5:31. Yes, I know I keep commenting on the interesting bridges, but the bridges keep on being interesting! :D
There’s a lot of interesting bridges in this country! Too many to count! And some boring ones too! M
"Catalyst" museum is the other side of the Mersey in Widnes & documents the birth of the global chemical industry in Widnes.
I used to volunteer there - it may not go into the details that you want but there are people there that can tell you anything about the local chemical works - worth a visit - also the end of the old Sankey canal which is only navigable for a few hundred yards and just used for mooring
Also - I believe that there are plans afoot to resurrect the canal system in Runcorn and maybe complete the loop you were talking about
I worked for several years in the R&D labs of the chemical works at Runcorn. Their origins were based on salt as a raw material. Electrolysed to make sodium hydroxide )Lye) The process also makes an equal amount of chlorine, and the R&D in the early days was to find commercial uses for the chlorine.. Best known are bleach (sodium hypochlorite) dry cleaning fluids, , vinyl chloride (hens PVC - vinyl) Also arcrtons (freons in the USA) which had widespread use as refrigerants until recently. ANd many others. At the lab at the works below the boat lift, Polyethelyne was discovered in tje 1930s,
Ooh, a veritable soup of very dangerous things to be near! Sounds like interesting work! As for the polyethylene... so that’s where all the shopping bags originally come from! M
M - even with the sunglasses on, I could see the nerd gleam in your eye and I can relate. Love it. Thanks for the video.
There’s always a nerd gleam in there! M
I see someone else had the correct answer regarding the pipe offsets to allow for expansion/contraction. In my misspent youth (as opposed to the misspent rest of my life) I worked for several years painting that type of steel infrastructure. I usually ended up on the really high bits (OK) or the tight inside corners (much less OK) where I'd end up wearing much of the paint. Nice cruise video, glad you had a nice day.
That doesn’t sound like the most pleasant way to paint yourself, but it’s not the worst misspent youth. M
A great video.
Interesting that you are from LA. You will know a relative of mine, Kathy Ireland (ex-actress and model from Santa Barbara) . He father (my uncle) who sadly died about three years ago, was from Garston, South Liverpool which is more or less opposite where you entered the Manchester Ship canal on the other side of the river.
I vaguely remember Kathy Ireland as a model much of the high school jocks were into, but was actually in Canada for much of her career, moving back to LA later. Stuart, or pilot, pointed out a large set of docks at Garston, but I can’t remember what he said they did there. M
Have you come access any Mink yet, they obviously aren’t indigenous and harm other wildlife, but are certainly exciting to see.
I’ve seen them on the river wey.
We’ve only seen one, we think... it was just a flash of black on the Trent & Mersey before coming down the Anderton Boat Lift. Yeah apparently someone had the daft idea to farm American Mink without realizing it’s essentially impossible to keep those little guys in a cage. M
Ferret is to stoat as leopard is to puma. Same family but different species. Ferrets are basically a domesticated polecat.
Ferrets are MUCH bigger than stoats - stoats and weasels are very much of a size, and the ferret lines up with the bigger ones like the mink and the pine marten. I would guess that a mink is most likely what you saw - I have seen them several times along the Bridgewater.
A mink seems the most likely, now that I’ve looked at the various weasely ones! M
Continuing my fitful binge watch - and so nice to hit the 900th like for your wonderful vids.
"May the lock gates be forever in your favour".
Thanks for following along and for the 900th ‘like’ we really appreciate the support
We're hoping that you can make it to the Bridgewater (haven't looked ahead yet). MIL is from Stockton Heath and we've done the canal a few years ago. Not many locks, maybe none. And a great week.
We’ll I don’t want to give away any spoilers! I’ll just say, keep going! 😉
Great vlog as ever but this brought back memories. As you may know I drove petrol tankers for years and sadly a friend of mine had a crash one evening and his tanker went over the bridge (M56) that you pointed out. RIP Vinnie always remembered
Sorry to hear about your friend.
I like the contrast between the grim industrial buildings and green countryside right next to each other.
It’s quite the contrast! M
Great vlog Micheal and Jo. River travel is so much bigger and as you say you have the currents to deal with. Cheers..
They’re not so bad, so long as it’s not been raining a lot! M
We pull out on to the river weaver and give a quick toot to warn ........
You are likely to come across proper big boats here. Firstly large craft physically may not be able to stop, secondly if they are over 500 tons they do not have to stop. Be careful big boats play by different rules.
These days large traffic is extremely rare; from what I read almost all freight and commercial traffic ceased in 2013, to the point where swinging of the bridges is now something that gets a newspaper story. So while there are some larger boats still operating on the Weaver, the few that do are apparently incorporated into the operation of the Lift, so staff won’t let you into the junction unless it’s reasonably clear of traffic. M
Very beautiful vlog, beautiful landscapes, unfortunately in danger with all these chemical plants
Well, thankfully, you’ve got to remember the history of most of that beautiful scenery... there used to be several more large chemical and industrial works along the Weaver, they’ve been torn down and removed. With luck the danger stays isolated and eventually shrinks back as we start thinking more about these extraction industries. M
Those locks are huge!!
Yep, they’re pretty big! M
Nice one. One hell of a lot if pipes there. And a great looking evening for you both. Thanks again for great info on what's what as you go along.
Thanks! Glad you’ve enjoyed watching! M
A river cruise is a nice change of pace.
It’s was very refreshing. So much space and so few boats!
To answer your question about the pipes going up, over and then down Michael, the pipes do that to allow for expansion. If they were straight, the whole line would buckle.
Thanks! Obvious in hindsight! M
Very enjoyable Sunday afternoon video !
Glad you liked it! M
Checking the map, you were only about 1 lock from the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Well, there is that spot of water you would have to go across ;) Also, are there enough moorings to continuously moor on that section of canal for the winter?
In theory you could overwinter on the Weaver, but there’s not a lot of mooring space so it could only be a relatively small number of boats. Additionally the locks go pretty dormant during the winter months and you need to arrange ahead for movements, so given the relative dearth of services like waste and water it could be a bit difficult. M
It's ocol to see you caught that feature of the pipes. It's for expansion from heat, whether the heat is from the contents or the sun. The pipe would break in the long straight runs they are doing. The pipe can flex in the hoops without breaking.
Thanks! M
Easily one of my favourite of your vlogs, I imagine most who take the Anderton lift do a swift U turn or head upstream but great to see the Runcorn reaches of the Weaver and yes a great pity that the connection back on to the Bridgwater is no longer there as that would truly open up this route for one and all.
Thank you! We loved the Weaver for so many reason. It was so quiet after a busy summer in the Trent & Mersey and you have so much more space. The scenery was beautiful for the most part and the bridges were majestic. Even the chemical plant was worth passing! Highly recommend the Weaver!
Such a great vlog and narration again. Thanks Guys your efforts appreciated as ever.
Thanks! Glad you liked it! M
Shoot all caught up, another great video.
I can't wait for our first canal boat trip next summer.
Keep on chugging
Bit of a short technical hiatus right now - editing laptop is in the shop - but more coming soon! M
That large boat at Sutton Weaver is the SS Daniel Adamson. We recently did a cruise on that up the Weaver to the boat lift, very peaceful and pleasant scenery.
Know what you mean about the chemical works - sort of ominous and foreboding, as if you half expect something to explode while you’re passing. I did the Manchester Ship Canal cruise once and the various chemical works extend for even more miles further up the ship canal.
Hoping to do the MSC ourselves! We didn’t capture it in the video, but it was the sudden deafening blasts of valves opening that was the most ominous! Whole thing sounded like a kettle about to blow! M
Looks like it was a lovely cruise.
It was! M
Beautiful area!! Thanks for coffee and a boat ride!!
Thanks for watching!
Never been on river Weaver and it looks well worth visiting... I love those railway semaphore signals on the river locks. Pity you cannot get as far as the Delamere Basin, although it is hardly a picturesque holiday destination.
Sutton Weaver swing bridge used to be a real driving bottle-neck before the M56 was built.. many years ago.
Yeah the Basin is apparently owned by the chemical works... rather too bad, there’s a church in there that looks quite fascinating, apparently built to serve the needs of the dockworkers back in the day, sitting on its own little island or peninsula. I was hoping there might be some information about how one could arrange a visit, but there was nothing but the bridge and a big private property sign. M
@12:15 Dark and Stoat/Ferret like, sounds like a mink to me.
Ah ok! Good to know!
Hi Andrew I agree that it could be a mink nasty buggers the female is small enough to get into a water voles burrow and Kill all it finds, These animal rights people have a lot to answer when they released them .Cheers
I thought same, dangerous buggers, absolutely fearless
Per Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust:
“A widespread modern misconception is that the UK’s wild population of American mink originated from mass releases of mink from fur farms by animal rights activists in the 1990s [but in] fact, the wild population was established decades earlier from multiple escapes (and perhaps deliberate releases) all over the country. Mink farms had been established in the UK from the 1920s, [and mink] were first confirmed to be breeding in the wild in 1956. By December 1967, wild mink were present in over half the counties of England and Wales, and in much of lowland Scotland.”
See, that was my thought... the moment you try to farm a mink you’ve guaranteed yourself a wild mink population. The animal rights activists had nothing to do with establishing the breeding population here. M
@@MinimalList Hi Micheal But if the animal rights people even release ten mink then they are adding to a problem that is increasing, Cheers,
Amazing scenery.. another great vid!!
Thanks! M
The catalyst museum is in Widnes
What a great day for a cruise! I thought it's always supposed to be foggy over there, lol.
Wait till the next vlog! Proper British summer weather in that one!
The Queen has declared there will be a minimum of 3, and no more than 3, days of summer.
Fascinating!
Thank you!
@13:10, i've done the weaver in late november. locks have to be booked well in advance. it's sooo peaceful.
Sounds lovely! It does seem a great place to go in winter when everyone else is off the water! M
Loops in pipes are usually there for expansion.
Yep, have since learned about thermal expansion loops, thanks! M
Do enjoy the river as the reasons listed... it's more natural and aids to the view., all ... I must say.... Aids me mental health..... Current is its twitch, lived on the Sacramento River in California... talk about currents, especially stormy times. Cheers.. Capt. Cass...."Lani". Must tell you ... I follow you to get the skinny on the inland waterways because you are better so far at showing facilities and history on what passes by... informative and very interesting... find my jaw drop at times but well worth the view. chemical plants scare me.....call me ignorant, but it is what it is.
Been to the Sacramento before, and the Kern... very different kinds of rivers from the extremely heavily managed ones here, where they’ve complete modified the original course to make it navigable and control floods. As for the chemical plants, these ones aren’t too worrisome, it’s all salts production... it’s the petroleum refineries that scare the heck out of me! Too many flammables! M
Quick question, not sure if its been answered before. I know that there is a speed limit on the canals, but what about the rivers? Obviously fighting current you have to go faster / slower. I am use to no speed limit on rivers here in the US. Idle / no wake speed could get really boring on the long wide stretches on the rivers. Do you run your diesel at full power every now and then? While I was moving a 24M yacht with twin 11 liter engines the manufacture of the engines wanted a full power run for at least 30 mins every 2-3 days. It helps keep the carbon from building up as normally those engines are run at such a low power on the trawler. At cruise when crossing the ocean we were running about 8 kts and at full power with all 800 HP going we broke the sound barrier at about 11.5 kts. Our 2300NM trip took about 12 days non stop. Some great scenery over there for sure. I am working through all your videos as well so I am sure there will be a few more questions from a currently land locked arm chair quarterback in Dallas TX. Thanks for all the work you do on your videos, great to watch the world go by. In the mid-late 80's my mother spend about a month on the canals, unfortunately she has passed about 12 years go and I don't know what route she took or where she went exactly. Back then with the $15/min collect calls back to the states she didn't call much, just once a while to say she was having a great time and everything was good. 👍
I KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ ALL YOUR COMMENTS BUT THE VLOG YOU JUST PUT ON WAS BRILL
Thanks! Glad you liked it! M
You guys are having fun!
Yep! M
Hi, love your VLOG's. Just a quick question. What kind of camera do you use for your videos? It comes over here in the US on UA-cam as high quality. Are you shooting in 1080P or 4K then downsizing? Thanks!
We’re using two iPhones and two GoPro Hero 4s... the time lapse footage is shot at 2.7K and downrezzed or cropped to 1080p. The video footage is already 1080p. Unfortunately we simply couldn’t work in 4K, the laptop is good, but not that good, and the storage costs would be unsustainable. M
I know y'all are probably always thinking about content for your vlog. I have a suggestion. It is interesting to see wildlife along the tow path. Much of which is nocturnal so I expect there is a lot more to be seen than you normally chance across during your travels. My suggestion is to get a trail cam to set up as you moor overnight at various spots.
I’ve thought about it... my guess is we’d mainly end up looking at a lot of shots of ducks, nighttime pedestrians, dogs squatting, and in the cities the occasional drunk couple attempting to have sex... but maybe someday I’ll find a good deal on one! M
I'm always fascinated by Michaels tattoo on his right arm, is it Indian numerals?
Arabic, actually, specifically Eastern Arabic though the actual digits used happen to be essentially identical to those used in Parsi and Urdu scripts. Most people would read it as 300211, but I’ve written it as you’d read out the individual numbers as words from right to left; one one two zero zero three, or 112003... or 1/1/2003.
Which was, to try and simplify a rather long story, the date of my first major version bump, when I went from Michael 1.x to Michael 2.0. Most of my tattoos represent a sort of version up. M
Great vlog guys. Dark ferrets by the river are probably Minks, you see them a lot by water. The chemical works is amazingly big isn't it? I used to drive across North Wales and it took AGES until you lost sight of it! Looking forward to seeing you on the Lanky :). Ian
Thank you! We couldn’t believe how long it took to pass the chemical works, and then we had to pass it again the other way! Loved the Weaver, looking forward to the Lanky!
Livin the dream.
I was talking to one of the lockies at Hunts lock today, he informs me that the lower gates in the small lock are being changed this winter, Not sure on the date or for how long it will take but they only use the smaller lock meaning that Hunts lock will not be passable.. I know you'll have moved on by then but thought its worth a mention..
Hmm interesting! I wonder why they don’t just use the big lock when the small one is out of action!
@@MinimalList From what he was saying they don't use the large one, not sure if there is a problem with it or they don't need to use a lock of that size...it's huge !
NEVER SEEN THAT PART OF THE RIVER LOOKS GOOD
It’s lovely! M
I think the lock staff on the river locks are brilliant and really look after you. Great footage. my boat performs better on the rivers as 4mph is really s bit slow for it. Thanks guys.
They really are great! They locked us through with style! M
Interesting semaphore signals at the locks. Are these the only ones on the canal network? There are of course still some on the railways.
I’ve no idea if they’re the only ones, as there’s still some places with ship locks we haven’t been, but never saw them before the Weaver! M
Jo, how do you carry the windless on your long walks between canals? Do you simply carry it in your hand or do you have a holster of some sort?
That should be "between locks."
She’s got a little leather holster we picked up from a chandlery some time back. It’s basically a fancy belt loop, works great! M
Surprised at the minimal traffic on such a beautiful day
Is too, especially considering this was August too!
We got lucky. Many have been avoiding the Weaver this year due to the Saltersford lock having been out of commission for so long! Lovely to see it so empty! M
@minimallist Isn't it meant to be vlog #221 not #212. Oops!
Keep up the great vlogs of your amazing adventure!
Oops! Thanks you are correct! Now changed!
Hi Jo and Michael, Do you know the purpose of the railway type semaphore signals? there were two positioned at each end of the locks, they looked like they were in the proceed aspect. The video is great, as usual, keep up the good work. A fan from Aus.
Don’t know for certain, as they don’t seem to be in use anymore, at least not for narrowboat traffic, but more likely than not they were used exactly like railway signals to let the larger boats know to stop and wait or enter. M
Nice trip. Great to see the bridges. Like the stone work ....... still standing the test of time. Your comments add to what you show along the way. Question.... do you know the time interval used in the time-laps the camera is set to?
Thanks! The time lapse is 0.5 seconds between each frame. M
@@MinimalList Thanks........
👍
😊
Bonjour
Merci! M
chemical works is stanlow oil refinery
We tried to find out what it was but it was pretty difficult to find info in it!
@@MinimalList The site at Runcorn is the former ICI campus, comprising of the Castner-Kellner and Rocksavage sites, and up on the top of the hill "The Heath" which was ICI's R&D centre in the region.
Nowadays with ICI dissolved and absorbed into several different companies, Innovyn is one of the main companies active on that site, Mostly this is making chlorine-based chemicals and vinyls. The other major tenant is Mexichem Fluor.
Both are related to the brine pumping and salt-production activities further upstream at Northwich - they provided the raw feedstocks for the Runcorn works.
There are also two power stations, Rocksavage Power which is a CCGT (Gas Turbine) power station, and the Energy from Waste Plant which burns Manchester's black-bag non-recyclable rubbish.
Stanlow Oil Refinery you would see by passing through Marsh Lock and turning left, toward Liverpool, on the Manchester Ship.
You have to love the comments watching a canal vlog then complaining about industrial scenes and sites😂
We can’t do much about the scenery! M
How does one prove that they have traveled a certain canal?
Well in our case the videos help. A lot of people get a metal badge to affix to the boat, but since you can order them online these days that seems a bit game-able. M
@@MinimalList an honor system for the honorable i get it. Thanks.
Did you have audio issues? Possibly my reception, very muddled like a covered mike
Not as far as we know and we haven’t had any other comments. Can you let us have a time code for when it is bad
Minimal List the entire video was not your usual quality. I watched several videos no problem. Watching it now it’s fine, go figure
That was very different - the river made a nice change, and you were lucky with the weather. As usual I had a look at your route on the ordnance survey maps on www.streetmap.co.uk/ . I'm pretty well travelled in the UK but you go to all sorts of odd places I've never seen - it's really interesting!
Thanks! Glad it’s fun to follow along! M
@@MinimalList Yes, I wouldn't have known you were at sea level running right alongside the Mersey estuary at Runcorn without the map, and it helped me make sense of you comment about vessels waiting in the canal for the tide. As well as being interesting and entertaining viewing,, your site is very educational.
Should this be episode 221 not 212?
Yep, thank you. Now changes!
Thermal expansion loop
Ahh, so they allow the horizontal runs to expand and contract with temperature variations? M