Ellesmere Port 

Easter Boat Gathering

At the time of writing, our Easter break is not yet over, but we have packed so much in to it so far (and I have taken so many photographs!) and the Ellesmere Port boat gathering and sea shanty festival was so good that it deserved its own blog. A friend of ours had travelled up from near Braunston to attend so we headed over on Friday, leaving us three days to go boating during our Easter break.

Talk about perfect timing, just as we drove over the canal bridge into the National Waterways Museum, Dave appeared below on his boat Gyr! We parked up and hopped aboard and was able to experience arriving at the gathering on a narrowboat - the next best thing to being on our own. We went down the two locks into the basin and moored alongside some fabulous boats, after a bit of trouble winding due to.. er... the wind!

We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the wonderful historic boats that had made the journey to be there, sampled some fine ales and ciders, had a singalong with the sea shanty performers and a wander around some of the museum exhibitions. It was a really cold and windy day but it certainly didn't dampen our spirits. So I think that I will just let my photos speak for themselves, below is a selection and if you would like to see all of them you can see them here

Lots of pets attended the gathering

All neatly lined up

The museum has a row of cottages furnished from different eras

Boats awaiting restoration when funds allow

The museum buildings are a great backdrop

Plenty of brightly coloured paintwork on show

The fabulous Friendship preserved for posterity

Drinking and singing sea shanties. What's not to like?

Old and new blending perfectly together

Some great canal company livery on display

It was very well attended as you can see

A really fantastic boat 'Thea' below 

Looking out across the estuary to Runcorn Bridge and Fiddlers Ferry