Arriving in Liverpool (2)

What lay beyond the bridge hole I left you with in the last post? This did.

The first stretch of open water with the gigantic brick Tobacco Warehouse on the left. The instructions were easy: continue under the bascule bridge directly ahead.

This brought us to another dock. At the Victoria Clock Tower we were to turn left.

I was hoping it would be obvious which was the way to go; the water was a bit complicated.

I was looking out for "Sid's Ditch" and was glad to spot a new-looking channel.

I think Sid was one of the workers involved in this part of the Liverpool Canal Link.

Sid's Ditch took us to a twisty hard-edged channel ...

... followed by another dock. Keep the buoys on the right, the CRT man said.

Ahead was the biggest boat we were likely to encounter in all our cruising. We were very close to the cruise ship terminal.

Then the sights came thick and fast. The Royal Liver Building (keep the buoys to the left) ...

... was followed by the Museum of Liverpool and a tunnel.

I had forgotten that there were a couple of tunnels to negotiate. There wasn't a huge amount of headroom; and this one had a bend in it immediately after entering. This was tricky as we had just come out of bright sunlight reflected from lots of white surfaces. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust, but we didn't hit anything.

Liverpool is full of interesting buildings, almost too many to take in at once. We six boats in the first convoy gathered again as we waited to go through the lock (there are two; I have left out the first one).

This lock took us into more docks ...

... past an old lightship and the Museum of Liverpool again ...

... then, with a sharp left turn, we were in Albert Dock passing the Tate gallery.

Just one more bridge to go ...

and we had arrived in Salthouse Dock. I found the pontoon using binoculars as we approached, reversed in, tied up ... and thought "Wow!"

And "Phew!" Half-past-two. From Hancock's Swing Bridge it had taken five and a half hours. We had been blessed with excellent weather and had a great passage into this fine place.

Did I mention that we had picked up our friend Jane in the morning so she could enjoy the trip too? We walked into the Liverpool One shopping area, didn't do much in the way of shopping, and collected our train tickets - all 36 of them - for our trip to Cornwall on Thursday. But that's another story.