The first boating of the year with Saturn was a horse-drawn trip on the Montgomery Canal from Aston to Maesbury and then from Maesbury to Ellesmere for loading. The main reason for this trip was to help warm Buddy up for his season and I understand a very pleasant trip for the crew plus it is always good to get more horse-boating experience.

The Greenman was the used to tow Saturn to Hurleston from Ellesmere, Thea then took on the tow to take Saturn down to Chester ready for Easter in Ellesmere Port. It was a fun and enjoyable trip and at Waverton we took on a load of barrels mainly empty and a couple full as a dummy load from Spitting Feathers Brewery.

When we arrived in Chester several other Historic Boats had already arrived also en-route to Ellesmere Port for Easter. ‘The Chester Canal Heritage Trust’ had organised an exhibition in the Tin Tabernacle describing the history of the canal in Chester, they had also organised a visit by the Lord Mayor. Using Buddy we had planned Saturn’s trip to Ellesmere Port to be horse-drawn, the Lord Mayor was very interested in Saturn, so much so he steered her out of Chester.

Buddy was on good form and it was an excellent trip into Ellesmere Port which was well supported by friends and volunteers. Saturn was welcomed into the museum by several dignitaries. The week-end in the Port was well attended with about sixty visiting Historic Boats, the weather was good and it was a fun week-end.

We had our 18th AGM, it was good to see everyone there and we had our usual drinks and snacks afterwards. Saturn remained at the museum for several weeks, and with the help of volunteers we were able to open her up to the public on many occasions.

Saturn’s next trip was a trip to Northwich with Buckden, it must have been the wettest trip on record, unfortunately you can’t really just tie up on the Manchester Ship Canal! Saturn then went from the Yarwoods Basin in Northwich to Middlewich for an Education week. Middlewich is a good venue for school visits and this visit was even better than the year before and it is a good run up to Middlewich Boat and Folk. On the Friday we also did a short piece of filming for BBC Country Tracks, for this we used Buddy and horse-boated Saturn back towards Northwich, this was shown in early December.

The week-end of Middlewich Boat and Folk went well, we had many visitors to Saturn, a group of Historic Boats including Saturn were tied on Town Wharf so very much in the centre of things.

Thea then took Saturn to Audlem via the New Cut, Saturn was left outside the stable block at the bottom of Audlem, she looked just the part there. Saturn then went into the town pound for the Audlem Transport Festival, the boats have now become very much part of this festival and although the weather was absolutely dreadful the event was fairly well attended.

Nantwich put on a canal exhibition in August and as part of that exhibition Saturn was on show to the public, this was very successful with over 300 visitors in the cabin. Then in early September with assistance from the museum we had a week of school visits, this was the first time we had worked with schools in Nantwich. It is a good location and worked very well. From there The Greenman took Saturn up the Llangollen Canal to Whitchurch for the Whitchurch festival which is a small but very successful event. Following this event Saturn was used for a short piece film funded by Whitchurch Better Welcome committee, the film showed Saturn re-created as a cheese boat and using children from Sir John Talbots school as the boat crew. Again Buddy was used to tow Saturn.

The Greenman then towed Saturn to Ellesmere and the from Ellesmere to Frontcysyllte for the celebration of the section of canal from Chirk to Horseshoe Falls becoming a World Heritage Site. Saturn was the lead boat of the procession of boats across Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and carrying the dignitaries.

It was then a race back on the Sunday to Ellesmere to unload Saturn ready for docking on the Monday. Saturn spent a week on dock, Saturn is docked every two years. This docking was quite a major one, with all the hull being checked out and blacked, the cabin re-painted and sign-written, all the hold re-painted, the inside of the cabin re-varnished, all the sheets scrubbed and re-proofed. Saturn came off the dock looking very beautiful. We received a grant of £1400 from the Historic Ships Register towards the docking which helped us enormously.