Lady Teal has had a few interesting days on the Leeds Liverpool Canal.

The canal at Burnley, between Reedley Marina and Wigan, has a closure that is overrunning by a number of months. Instead of re-opening in March the canal will now re-open at the end of May. Normally we would look to reroute cruises and then make our way through the re-opened canal and catch up our schedule. But in this case the closure is so long, so disruptive to our schedule and only on one section that we decided to see if there were alternatives. We came up with the idea of lifting the boat out of the water and taking it to Liverpool where we could get it cradled back in.
Seems a straightforward thing to do? When you are trying to lift a 42 Tonne boat the options on where you can lift out and in are very very limited. We need a 220 Tonne crane that comes with two support vehicles, one carrying 80 Tonnes of balance weights and one a small crane to lift the pads. We also need a very large lorry to transport Lady Teal. In order to do achieve the lift we also need very solid ground very close to the canal and a crane company experienced in this sort of work so as not to damage either the ground or, more importantly, the boat. This really does limit where it can be done as the area the crane passes over cannot have drains that could be collapsed by the very large weights involved. Whilst lifting the boat the total weight will be approaching 200 Tonnes.
With some looking around we decided to go with Ray Bowern transport for a contracted lift and transport, they do a lot of boat lifts so know what is needed to successful.
Night before we were due to lift some ~@}{@~ gentlemen decided to take a JCB and destroy a bridge control unit just outside Liverpool , BBC Article , CRT initially thought it would be weeks to fix! But they pulled through and have figured a way to manually operate the bridge a couple of days a week till it can be fixed. CRT were brilliant in keeping us informed, but it was all a bit worrying.
Well we are now in Liverpool about to start our series of cruises down here with minimal disruption and change to our guests. This sort of excitement, and cost we could do without. Though one of our guests had the unusual privilege of starting her cruise in Leeds and ending it in Liverpool!

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Seen lots of great things, a variety of locks and bridges, aqueducts and viaducts, so really good. But the most impressive in many ways are the big boats.

We are used to being the big player, 42 Tonnes with the other boats more like 20, but down here they over 400!! So we are definitely not the big boat here.

Great fun and all the guests love seeing true commercial boats carrying a cargo, oil in the case of Exol pride.

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We always say it but we are so lucky with our lovely guests. The picture is of a great card that one of our guests did for us. The Kingfisher was on the front because she really wanted to see one, but unfortunately we didn’t. We frequently do see them, but this year there have been far far fewer of them.

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Exol Pride, formerly Humber pride, is a tanker built in 1979. is 60 metres, almost 200 foot, long and 6 metres wide.

She takes oil from Hull, via Goole down to Doncaster. Someone bigger than us!!

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It was also a first for me when we got hit by a mini twister! All moored up for lunch and I was standing on the back deck , a sudden roar, water spraying everywhere, chairs flying around, me and the boat being buffeted about, then all over. It was gone as quick as it arrived, but a bit of a surprise. No damage to people or boat so all’s well, but a bit of a surprise.

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Lady Teal now Five Star Gold    

At our recent VisitEngland assessment we are pleased to say that for the ninth year in a row we again achieved our Five Star rating. This year was a bit more special than even that! We are thrilled and proud that we also received the prestigious and rarely given Gold award. This accolade is for those who go the extra mile for their guests. While star ratings are based on a combination of quality, range of facilities and level of service offered, Gold awards are based solely on quality. We really feel that this award cements our position as the premier canal and river hotel boat in England.

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There have been some huge storms around but they have passed us by. We have been basking in heat and sun forever it seems.

All the youngsters are doing well on it, see below, and it has been lovely, if a bit warm for some of the flights.

The new time limits on Wigan seem to be really good and we have to say the team there are superb, volunteers and seasonals.

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The weather has been wonderful and the scenery gorgeous. What more could we ask for?

This really is a wonderful canal with scenery, villages and plenty of places to moor, loving it.

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There is a new regime now for coming into and out of Liverpool and I have to say I think it is a lot better.  It removes a lot of the time pressures that existed when you had to rush from bridge to bridge and to the locks, also you used to have to leave Salthouse at 8 but now it is up to 9.30, much more civilised.

So a lovely sail out and then a glorious sunset as we finished up dinner.

As those of you who regularly look at my ramblings know, and I hope there are some out there, I do love a good sunset.

There has been no post processing on this shot, though I do have to admit it was slightly underexposed in order to enrich the colours, I hope you like it.

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