The Importance of Seeing EARNEST

As the narrow boat Earnest travels around the canal system, reaching the parts others dare not, her master, Neil Arlidge, posts reports of his progress to various waterways Internet groups - including uk.rec.waterways, which was instigated by our Chairman in 1996. Here are extracts from Neil's account of his visit to the Sankey:

Saturday, June 28th: We met Newsgroupy Dave Croft at Latchford, who was to then whizz down to Walton Dock to get a pic of us attempting to "enter" Walton Lock. Dave got some pics of us from the bank as we made a brief detour into Walton Lock and up to the gates of the decrepit and totally silted up lock then ensued. Arrival at Ellesmere Port was at 17:15, after a rather laid back run down the MSC. This was in the lower holding basin, below the lock and swing bridge by the Holiday Inn.

Sunday 29th June 2003: John Chapman "The Navigator" and Frank Smith, the West Bank (Widnes) Yot Club Secretary (carrying a combination of ALL local knowledge of the totally uncharted Mersey above Eastham) arrived just in time for a 7:30 departure for a zoom down to Eastham Sea Locks, the exit of the Manchester Ship Canal out into the Mersey. VTS gave us clearance for departure and to be locked straight out at 8:00, some 3 hours before high water Eastham. We knew this was much to early, but had been warned by Nigel Bowker, the barge master who accompanied Chris Coburn, that Eastham have a habit of non-cooperation with pleasure craft departures. We arrived at 8:00 and Eastham were true to form and we had to wait for the suction dredger "WD Severn" and a MSCC tug to enter first. We were placed right behind the rather large dredger, Neil expecting them to get some glee at us being blown about as it left. We eventually entered the lock at 8:25 and exited at 8:55. As the dredger left, Neil stayed tied on... and we stayed put as the tug was blown about - Ho Ho!

We then headed straight down the Eastham Channel for a bit to clear the entrance dolphins (wooden markers) and the known damaged remains of others downstream. Eventually at 9:05 we turned and started up stream, rather gingerly on the Springs (8.6M Liverpool) flood. As expected we soon had a controlled grounding as we did not clear the Eastham Sands. After about 15 mins we stopped sliding across the sands and were off. Ince Bank was caught at around 9:45 and at 10:00 we floated off and started to make rapid progress. Eastham was in constant contact and seemed rather unduly concerned about our groundings. A passing and circling police helicopter was given the thumbs up sign and soon shot off.

From now on Frank Smith expertly guided us up the channel to Runcorn Bridges, from Hale Head now close to the north shore. Just before Runcorn Bridges we had some difficult manoeuvres, as we had to swing out from the bank (to avoid some nasty underwater sticky out sheet piles, that had only recently sliced the keel of a visiting yacht.) and go across the flood to go through the central arch of the railway bridge. All went well, just as well as we had now caught up with the full bore of the flood.

We were taking the now main southern channel, which we saw on our recce goes hard to the bank. Around Old Quay the scour/erosion had uncovered a nasty line of piles, part of old bank protection. We knew where the covered section of the piles were and past between these and the just visible ones with out incident. Half way to Fiddler's Ferry we, as predicted, grounded again. Here the flood was weak and we hung around for about 15 mins as a cheeky very shallow-draughted catamaran from Fiddler's wandered about without grounding using a small outboard.

Owing to the very obstructive behaviour of a certain other "Captain", who claimed "ownership" of the water above Warrington Bridges, "Captain" Arlidge decided to heed the threats and only proceed to Fiddler's Ferry. At least here we would be rather more welcome and would be the first narrow boat to enter the lock at least since its reinstatement by Warrington Borough Council, and probably since sometime in the Nineteenth Century. At Fiddlers Ferry there is a the small yacht harbour, which is, of course a small section of the Sankey Canal, with dropped bridges replacing the swing bridges at each end.

We still had plenty of flood left when we arrived at Fiddler's Ferry, more than enough to have got us up to Warrington and Howley Weir. After Ian had negotiated the many small yots and did a rather "in one" wind against the flood, Neil took over to do the very controlled approach to the lock against the still fierce flood. Coming as close as we dared to the bank, the bow was put in and a sudden burst of full power use to heave the stern round, which by this time was still in the force of the flood. A small "pivot" was done on the upstream lock wing wall, but we were soon off and a controlled entrance into the 70ft lock chamber (pass at 12:15 and in at 12:30). There was rather a large welcoming committee, including the Reverends Steve Parish and David Long from SCARS.

Our 25.9 mile trip from Eastham had taken 3 Hours 10 minutes. The weather for our passage was a perfect Force 2, Westerly.

Monday 30th June 2003: After a bit of a rest in the morning we were locked out of Fiddler's Ferry Lock at 13:00, in absolutely foul weather, to punch the last half hour of flood, to be sure of not getting stuck on any of the sands on a falling tide. Frank Smith was again our guide and we decided to go the easier northern channel route. This would not involve any manoeuvres in front of the Runcorn Bridges, but even so we did in fact touch the top of one of the sand ridges (by now on a falling tide), but Ian took off the power and we drifted back into the narrow channel.

As usual Neil stole Ian's thunder and did a rather good entrance into the waiting lock, surrounded by many onlookers. (13:50) After a trip round the basin we moored up pride of place, right outside the club house. Of course we were the second "modern" narrow boat to enter Widnes Lock on the isolated bottom section of the Sankey having been upstaged by the "other" salty narrow-boater - Chris Coburn in the narrow boat PROGRESS in 1998.

Tuesday 1st July 2003: After persuading John the Spike Island Locky that we REALLY did want to leave as soon as there was enough water, we were eventually locked out at 12:50, some hour before high water. Mersey Rescue were about in a small RIB, trying to catch a unmanned dinghy. After doing this they contacted us and said they were glad to shadow us for a while, as they were concerned we had enough power to get through the Runcorn Bridges. They followed us to beyond Hale Head, after this a rather larger RIB took over to shadow us to Liverpool.

There was fairly flat water in one of the ebb channels, round West Bank... BUT as soon as we came round to the bridges, it was like hitting a brick wall. Ian kept some in reserve and left Earnest at 2200 revs. It was painfully slow just before the bridges, but strangely we took off through the arches and started to make solid progress. The fall in water level from the upstream end of the piers to the downstream end could clearly be seen. Below the bridges there was the dog-leg to do to get in the channel, but Frank said it was more important to make this gentle as we wanted complete control of our position. We were now managing around 4MPH against the flood and started making progress to Hale Head, which we had to skirt round, going more out to the centre of the estuary, before making an arch round to our next way point, the sticky out Liverpool airport light gantry.

It was just before this that the prop shaft noise started... the ebb had come almost immediately and we were OFF! Just as well as Neil had prepared Earnest for maximum salty travels. Periscope exhaust was attached, Mikuni bung in and the front battened down. It now began to get a bit choppy, a nasty wind over tide short sea, causing a fair bit of bottom plate banging... Neil then dumped the last of the water to further lighten the bow.

The next section was the most dodgy, going over a bit indeterminate channel and skirting some spoil ground before coming round Garston Rocks, then finally into the deep water, buoyed Garston channel. All went well and by the time we were in the Garston Channel we were really moving, at around 14.5MPH. The Liverpool water front certainly shot past. The slamming continued to around the Pier head, then subsided. This was due to the NW (wind over Spring tide) Force 4 now not having much flood to argue with. Some confusion followed when we arrived at Liverpool Docks, Langton Lock (15:30), probably due to John Chapman insisting on using his known naff VHF. Our Mersey Rescue "shadow" managed to raise the somewhat laid back Langton Lockies and we were eventually allowed in after a tug, after aimlessly wandering around in the now gentle swell for nearly half an hour! ... we might as well taken a trip down to New Brighton. The locky used the outer "short" section of the lock, the gates being huge 40ft wide tanks of water, that slide in from the side. No ropes were taken and we just clung from the one thing we could - the safety ladder. On the plus side the lock was very gentle and we were soon somewhat near the top - just as well we were near the ladder. Finally at 16:45 we set of for a quick 15 minute journey up through the docks to our allocated "berth" in Collingwood Dock, just below Stanley Dock and the teeny weeny hole in the wall, where the Stanley Dock Locks start beyond.

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