be around 3ft, but they told me it was
between 4ft and 6ft. It dawned on me that
my wife Sandra’s Vivacity 20 drew just 2ft
4in and would comfortably meet the
draught requirements. I went home and
measured the width at 6ft 10in. Perfect!
With two berths Scooby would give me
the accommodation I needed as well as
being seaworthy.
I started planning the voyage. I wanted
to go from Rhyl into the Chester basin, but
there was a flood bund in place to protect
the city. It had been installed two years
earlier by Natural Resources Wales as a
one-off test, and they’d never taken it
away. The Inland Waterways Association
(IWA) and Canals and Rivers Trust
campaigned to get it removed as it was
blocking a navigation and in May 2018 it
was finally removed – but the locks had
silted up and the basin depth was less
than 2ft. This wouldn’t be cleared in time
for my departure so I had to plan an
alternative route to Chester via the Mersey
to the Manchester Ship Canal.
For this passage you need the boat
surveyed and additional safety equipment
- a precaution designed for canal boats
rather than seagoing boats. This, plus
waiting for the right tides to enter the
Mersey, set me back a fortnight.
Next, I needed to sort out crew. While I
was happy to do the trip single-handed,
on inland waterways you have locks to
contend with, and having an extra pair of
hands to help secure the boat, and open
and shut the gates definitely makes life
easier. My racing friend Anne and
neighbour Tony were both keen to help,
and Sandra could join me at the weekends.Entering the Mersey
At last we were ready to go and the sun
was shining. Anne joined me for the first
stretch, and we timed our departure from
Rhyl to carry the tide to the Mersey across
the River Dee. For a 20ft boat with a small
engine, strong tides have a huge impact
on speed over the ground.
We headed across the top of Hoylake
and cut between the Mersey Brazil Buoy
and the edge of the Mersey to dodge the
ferries up to Eastham Locks
I called up Mersey VTS and advised
them where we’d be entering the channel- for small boats like Scooby this is the
starboard side, and they can track your
progress. The tactic for a small boat is to
keep to the sides of the channel so there’s
not enough water for anyone else to hit
you. Anything that’s going to be a danger
will be well aground before then!
I’ve always liked the Mersey. I used to be
an engineer, mostly on steam ships, so it
was exciting to see all the commercial
vessels, from small coasters to ocean-
going container ships, while passing the
city and the Liver Building.
We motored at 4 knots, but with the tide
made 6 knots over the ground and got
halfway to Eastham before the tide turned
against us.
This was the beginning of the
Manchester Ship canal, which branches
off to the south of the River Mersey.
A further 2.5 miles along, we reached the
National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere
Port. What surprised me was the reception
we got from well-wishers. The IWA had run
a piece in their quarterly magazine, and
lots of people recognised us, including the
staff at the museum. Even liveaboards tied
up on the canals, gave us a wave.
At one point – when we got to
Wolverhampton at the end of the
Shropshire Union Canal – we passed a
guy who had been canal-boating for 40
years and never seen a sailing boat!
From Ellesmere Port we took the
Shropshire Union Canal and spent the first
night at the basin in Chester. The next day
we travelled through the Northgate locks
together with an Australian skipper on a
narrowboat. As we were lifted 33ft to the
main line below the city walls, Anne took
some photos. This magnificent five-lock
staircase was carved out of solid rock in
the 1770s and, luckily for us, was operated
by a lock-keeper.A leisurely pace
When we reached Calveley, near
Nantwich, Anne headed home for a few
nights, and Sandra joined me. The
weather was glorious. In fact, it was 28°C
and we were praying for trees to shade us
from the sun. Each morning we’d get
going around 8am and stop between 5pm
and 6pm. You can plan the day ahead, but
what you don’t know is how long it will
take to get through locks, especially on the
weekend. You don’t want to ‘waste’ water,
so you tend to wait for boats to come
through and, as they’ve emptied the lock,
go in and come back up.
Inland cruising is very different to coastal
sailing. The locks slow you down quite a lot- it might take 20 minutes to get through
just one lock whereas at sea you’d
LEFT The lock
entrance to
Stourport-on-
Severn
RIGHT Fishguard
Lower Harbour
BELOW RIGHT
Approaching
Ramsey SoundCIRCUMNAVIGATE WALES
➜‘You can plan the day, but you don’t know
how long it will take to get through the locks’
geophotos/Alamy