Snapped

I'm standing at the front of the boat with an over-topped-up cup of tea. The morning sun is on my back and in front are boats queuing for the Anderton boat lift.

When we got here two years ago I was disappointed that the queue was too long for us to go down. This morning we have lazed in bed but are only third in the queue.

Our turn. We drive the boat into the channel that feeds into the water-filled caisson that will descend 50 feet to the River Weaver below. Slowly the seals are lowered and locked into place and the caisson separates from the feed-channel. Down our boat goes in its huge bath. At the bottom (this image) we wait for the outside seal to link to the inner one so they can both be removed together. Suddenly there is a loud bang and water bursts towards us. Above us a snapped cable swings loose. The woman in charge looks alarmed. 'That was definitely not supposed to happen.'

We were never in any danger but our boat can't get out of the lift so our caisson is hauled back to the top again and we reverse into the canal where we started.

It's the first time, apparently, since the boat lift was restored and put back into service 14 years ago that a cable has snapped and some of our group are asked to describe what we saw. But most of us just spend time in the museum finding out how the lift works, with a little more understanding than we had before.


Many thanks for all the comments. Sorry I can't respond at the moment.