Almost accidentally went down this once...
I took my partner on a trip on the Trent and Mersey for her 40th 10 years ago. It was a first on a narrow boat for us, the lovely Ruby Tuesday from Preston Dock. A beautiful boat with a lovely double bed, kitchen, lounge and log fire. After navigating the various tunnels over the first day or so, we came to Anderton. We couldn't actually see the lift at first. I (wrongly) decided that this was a right turn towards Chester and started heaving our 80ft narrow boat sharply right akin to attempting a hairpin bend. The lift access designed for boats coming the opposite direction. Attempting this ridiculous manouver, the lift came into full view while I also started to noticed the queue of other boaters with mouths agape who had moored up to plan their descent. As the massive construction loomed above and below us, the prospect of entering the lift loosened my sphincter dramatically. And my better half finally convinced me of my madness; that we needed to reverse, do a 360 and Moor up before I thrashed us and the boat together on a River that we had no maps for and knew absolutely nothing about. Apart from that moment of heart-thumping madness and the odd challenging lock, I'd highly recommend a week on the water. I remember once, on our return from another 4-day trip towards Manchester, we rounded a bend to suddenly see see and hear the M6 descent of the bridge over the Ship Canal. It appeared to me as if the World had suddenly gone to war or some other full-blown emergency such was the speed, racket, and number of vehicles pelting in both directions across the 6 lanes.