Hi all this is a cruise we have just completed from chester to northwich Via the Anderton lift and the river Weaver its free to use the lift for BW licence holders and £30 for all other craft. To book a passage in advance is £5 fee if you turn up and wait is free. We got there at 9.15 am and were lucky to get on the 9.30 drop, it is a massive structure which has too be seen to realise how advanced it was for its time so simple yet so clever. it takes about 15 mins to get on the weaver. We were glad to let the boat out onto a deap river again my Honda 15 was fine probably hitting hulls maximum speed of about 9 knots boat was great much more at home than on the canals we visited Northwich nice town good shopping easy access from the river 2 mins walk. we went upto the lochs but not through them there is about 25 miles that can be cruised. If you have a seaworthyness cert you gan join ship canal to elesmereport cost £18 then back round in a loop via shroppy union canal I fancy that in the future maybe, locks on Middlewhich branch of shroppy are a bottle neck so allow plenty of time approx average 1 hour per lock had a great time see pics cheers Mark and Sharon

(Many thanks to Andy for his kind permssion to include his © photos and text on this site)