a bit confused uh i'm at the end of the weaver navigation about as far as you can actually
get i don't think i can get any further this swing bridge there's a sign on it that says
it's private property beyond there so yeah not going to be able to get any further so
let's just go back shall we?!
just on the left here as we turn round would have been the Runcorn and Weston canal built
in 1859 the wrong corn and western canal was two and a half miles and it linked the weaver
up to the Bridgewater Canal at Runcorn itself but it did so via a set of locks which are
still out of action today and there are plans to regenerate it um via the runcorn locks
restoration society although there's nothing i can find about the regeneration of the Runcorn
and Weston canal itself you know some of the canals that were in operation a long time
ago simply aren't these days there are thousands of more miles of canal back in the day than
there are operating now
all right dead ahead that's my landing point where i can moor up not because i'm intending
to use the lock but because i'm just going to overnight here because the weather is
shite
despite it being the middle of may everything feels quite wintery i'm soaked through so
i need to dry off but also yeah it's a little bit chilly as some people like to say - not
me though i would never say that ;)
this is the manchester ship canal looking out from the point at which it joins the river
weaver and in the distance you can see the river mersey and it all seems to flow in the
same direction off to the top right there that would be the direction i would take to
get to manchester okay so um "okay so"
i'm mooring up here on this holding platform whatever they call it which is normally a
reserve for boats going on to the manchester ship canal the next day i'm not going to go
on the manchester canal because yeah i'm protesting against peel who own the manchester chip canal
and they're charging extortion amounts of money all in all i think it's 150 quid if
i wanted to go to manchester from here um and i've got to get an inspection which will
cost another 100 quid from some of the people i spoke to and um many of the people on the
list of approved surveyors wouldn't even answer their phones or were too far away or even
retired in some cases so i just couldn't get anyone to inspect my boat so that it was seaworthy
in the eyes of peel so it just wasn't going to happen was it really i did try and then
i just thought oh sod it's too much faffing around from friends minimal list they've got
a good video on the manchester ship canal and so is cruising the cut um watch that if
you want to see what it's really like but um yeah some people have said to me yeah it's
all right it's just it's a long old slog 30+ miles of just plodding along in the middle
of that - going past warehouses and wharves that have just fallen down and more of the
modern side of industrial i wouldn't even call it heritage just industry that's just
been forgotten about but this we just come to this this is what i love i'm gonna get
down in there and see if there's anything washed up that i can at least use on my fire
as firewood or maybe reappropriate for use inside the cabin or outside there's got to
be some fenders in here somewhere
i have to say there's not a lot down here a football a lot of those tennis balls that
dogs like
what's that... a marker
loads of plastic bottles...
i don't know what that is?!
oh actually i do know what those that's from a life ring keeps it in place when it's not
being used that is a very very tall heel jesus
um what else we got
not a lot really
just a load of midges lying around
i'll take my firewood anyway that's always useful driftwood firewood is some of the best
oh my god there's so much more over there
what's going on down here i can see a bunny rabbit and a rat but that was about it a load
of stuff watched up down there but this according to that sign is ici property ici the company
that run i think run that uh wharf right at the end i couldn't get to the docks there
or at least they own it i don't know it's difficult to keep up with it all really especially
as the guides that i use just go out of date so quickly but that's private land so i'm
gonna get back sorry i didn't know i didn't know yeah can't get me!!
it's morning i had a nice restful mooring here it's very very quiet but i just need
some coffee
and then we can crank it
let's crank it!
just going under the Frodsham viaduct - this thing's got four of those arches and we're
just going to go underneath one of them the other one would another one of them would
go under over the um the actual river weaver which veers off over in that way but what's
most exciting about this stretch here is we've got this bridge we've got a swing bridge Sutton
swing bridge and then we've got the Danny Adamson so we have a little look inside let's
go the Daniel Adamson is a steam tug boat and i've never been on one of those before
so i'm very excited just to go in there and see how it all works and pretend that i understand
it but before we do that i really want to thank a few people on my crank it crew
filling a page of my crank it crew book this time are caroline mark and fletch the dog
ian armstrong he's a producer so he gets little flags there deborah j burton henry rothery
derrick stoddart leanne and jim blankman richard mayberry he gets flags for being a producer
as well so does daniel coulcher and darren hancock thank you all so much got robbie clark
nick Hingham robert brailsford chris cole is a top producer of the vlog jonathan thomas
john hilliard larry chapman Ade lees another producer jim kane kev mosby and producer michael
pilling to complete the billing thank you all so very much i love you guys [sings, badly]
'you're the best thing that's ever happened...' ahem
just up these steps this is the captains area where the captain would stand and steer the
boat from that's amazing what a view so this - all it does is basically steer it
and then you'll call down with instructions? With this
Ah brilliant look at that we can't we can't reply down there but just
he just sits there and they say they're all full ahead bring it round and you do it and
you do it again to double confirm it cool does that take another person to do that
you have two people up here? It's a two man job - or woman - it's 2021
so i can say that i've been at the wheel in the wheelhouse on the danny and Adam... let's
get that right on the daddy and on... the Danny adamson! there we go captain robbie
reporting So who has to be down there you have to be down there pulling the levers?
Oh well not me only one of us can do that what's your boat's name? Something lass?
naughty lass yeah okay these are the actual engines the
two of them gives the propulsion yeah right compound direct drive same age as the boat
1903
this is where the magic happens isn't it?
Have a look here turn around
Wow you can't social distance in here can you?
We've all had two jabs so
how many of you have to be down here when you're operating? When you're actually on
the underway to actually run all you need is two in here and two in there okay but we
actually run with three in here and four in there because none of us are getting any younger
i initially thought who would want to be down here whilst you're chugging along but it's
fascinating I wouldn't be anywhere else yeah this is the
best place yeah so it's a compound engine so uh it's not a triple expansion so it's
a an hp and an lp right and this is the uh this is the valve gear so when something goes
wrong how do you troubleshoot? [laughter]
you're listening for noises you use the back of your hand to go around checking for temperatures
we do have a thermometers on the feed into the boiler again if they shoot up we know
we've got a little bit of a a little bit of tweaking and fiddling to do on the condenser
you know to get it sorted again so you just yeah you use your common sense?
You use your common sense you tend to get a feel for what's going on and you know what
to keep your eye on So steam comes in from the top circulates
through the around the water tube which are here so water gets fed through the tubes because
the steam goes around the tubes condenses falls to the bottom gets pumped back into
the boiler so it's concerned conserving the water distinguish unlike a steam look on the
railway there's always a water tower at each station you can keep topping but when you
go out on the mersey there's nothing like that right you've got to be much more efficient
with the steam okay so you've got all this gear for reusing the water instead you need
pure water Now i know a lot of boaters who worry about
having pressurized heating systems on board well this is another game isn't it?!
you can see there's not much room there's not much room and there's a lot going on in
here and yeah a lot going on you've told me how it all works but i've immediately - it's
gone ! so i'm glad you guys are doing it and not me
so it used to be called the ralph brocklebank
so that's what it looked like and and you've sort of faithfully reproduced it here yeah
amazing so that mirror right there brilliant
where's the bar then is that going to be this bit here? right ok that's pub of the week
oh well the bar's closed and the boat's not moving today it would have been good to see
it underway but if you'd like to see more of this boat and a much better maid video
go to Fox's Afloat youtube channel
you too thanks again for letting me come on board
we're just passing the Frodsham arm of the weaver navigation and i've been told this
used to link to the manchester ship canal but it's disused beyond Frodsham lock and
for fans of fox's afloat i know there are a lot of you that's their boat just there
silver fox i've got to say this it's quite awkward when uh fellow vloggers meet for the
first time because you're not sure whether they're going to be like filming you or whether
you should be filming them and what i've heard of um those two guys is they are actually
quite private they don't want people like you know looking in their windows all the
time that is the price you pay if you are putting
your life out on the internet and in my case you know tv as well it's just like... the
currency is privacy that you're giving away and you just got to accept that some people
will stare some people will shout and wave frantically at you that's just part of it
now when i passed uh foxes afloat they did say don't take our mooring because they've
just left this place which is called devil's garden and it looks like heaven to me
i can see fran and rich over there they've moored up so uh let's go and see what they
think of it maybe they can give us a little tour
Where we're moored near fran and rich of floating our boat um there is a pub nearby but i can't
be arsed so i'm just gonna have a pint of guinness on board is this a pint? it's 500
milliliters 4.2 percent so surprisingly weak Guiness because you'd think oh it's a stout
that'll be oh extra stout it says that'll be really yeah quite potent but actually it's
pretty light guys anyway from a can not as good as obviously getting it from the keg
but whatever let's just chuck it in a glass and eat it - eat it? it is a meal but i'm
gonna drink it. it's a meal what you can drink oh yeah pouring a guinness there's an art
to it but from a can you just you just pour it in i know in pubs they wait but uh i'm
not i'm not just gonna bung it all straight in there we go i've got a little bit left
actually let's get the last bit in there oh yeah lovely right what a day is cranking thanks
for watching this video cheers it's just guinness get it down
sometimes i like to put my little pinky out what i like about guinness is it is so light
and even from a can or from a bottle whatever it's all pretty much the same thing isn't
it i mean what do you think let me know in the comments below there's going to be a war
of comments saying no you can only drink guinness from ireland in a pub cheers thanks for watching
bye
according to fran you can eat some of this tree
Fran: they're really good if you're heavy-hearted they're supposed to make you feel better
don't you feel better Rich: oh immensely
i feel so free and light