Saturday morning at 10:30am a small group of six LCC members met at the Runcorn Rowing Club to paddle the stretch of the Weaver Navigation up to the Dutton Locks. It was a hive of activity at the rowing club as boats were loaded onto trailers for an away meeting.

We weaved our way through the group carrying our kayaks to the launching pontoon with greetings being exchanged.  It was a leisurely two hour trip to the locks so with a stop for lunch we were looking at returning at around 4pm. With everyone safely on the water we were off.  Three sea kayaks, and three crossover kayaks made the two hour trip in decent weather. We had no rain and little wind. Arriving at the little landing point Phil tied all the boats together and we left them floating in a colourful little group on the water whilst we all headed to the picnic tables up ahead.The table was soon covered with sandwiches, biscuits, chocolate fudge cake and jam and “dirty custard  donuts.” It was a welcome break.

The weather had turned quite chilly now and so the group headed back. We usually make a trip around to the sluice gates before heading back but today we gave them a miss.  The return trip was done at the same leisurely pace although we did encounter some strong wind in places which made it a little longer than the two hours.  Despite our little group being a bit out of practice having not padded much distance over the winter months we managed the 10 mile trip quite comfortably.

Paddlers:-
Irene Jackson, Jim Duffy, Phil Edwards, Bob & Sue Hamilton and John Fay