A seven tonne excavator and a team of sewage engineers have come to the rescue of an ocean-going yacht stranded in the mud on the River Weaver at Northwich in Cheshire.
Serious, the waste management company from Burton on Trent, is installing a new sewage treatment plant for a row of British Waterways cottages on an island at Hunts Lock, Northwich. The only access to the island is on foot across the lock gates, so a few days earlier the digger had been loaded onto a pontoon and floated down the river on a barge to the site.
The owner of the stranded yacht was extremely happy to find the digger just where he needed it. Without it, the vessel would almost certainly have been stuck for the weekend.
The excavator cleared mud from around the concrete hull. A number of people from the town gathered to watch the rescue, which took two hours.
"We were delighted to be able to help," said Martyn Fuller of Serious. "It was lucky we had the right equipment in the right place at the right time – and a very resourceful team to operate it."