Braunston Historic Boat event with Sickle.

(Boat Sickle - posted by Alan)
(Retrospective post for Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th June)


We had two excellent days at Braunston with Sickle, and for once rain was the least of our worries.  In fact the major problem we faced was overheating - Saturday was exceptionally hot, and Sickle's back cabin rather stifling overnight.  Fortunately by Sunday although temperatures were still high, things had cooled down a bit.

Cath took Sickle around on the Saturday parade, which, not unusually, proved to be the busier one.  I took the tiller on the Sunday parade.

Too many photos to post in line here, but hopefully this Flickr album gives a fair idea of both parades.

Link to Flickr album


Two Parades
Miles 2.4, Locks: 0
Total Miles 12.9, Total Locks:13

But meanwhile we had another boat.

(Boat Sickle - posted by Alan)
(Retrospective post for Friday 28th June)

First lock - Buckby Bottom.

Flamingo being trapped in by the long term lock failure on the Rochdale canal didn't necessarily mean a stop to all boating activity until the lock was fixed and we could escape. 

We had always planned to take both boats, Flamingo and Sickle, to the Braunston Historic Boats event, but clearly Flamingo had ceased to be a possibility as soon as it became clear how long the Rochdale stoppage would inevitably last.

Moving towards next Buckby lock.

In fact whilst we went away with Flamingo, Sickle had been left with the local boat painter, Colin Dundas, for a complete repaint of its topsides.  We had now owned her for some 8 years, and the paint was already some years old at the time of purchase - it had generally held up well, but was now tired, and in need of a full refresh.  Colin had done an excellent job of meeting our requirements for a revised livery, and the work was complete.  We could take Sickle to Braunston if we were prepared to leave Flamingo unvisited for nearly a week up in Lancashire - we considered carefully and decided it was a slight risk we were prepared to take.

Cath takes over for the Braunston flight.

The principal reason Sickle has seen little use on its own for several years, and generally only travels about with Flamingo, is that since we inherited a second large black dog, back cabin living has ceased to be possible.  Cath, Odin and I could squeeze into a back cabin for night time, but fitting Max in as well is a step too far.  So we had to negotiate with the sons that they would have the dogs for the duration of us travelling to Braunston, attending the show over the weekend, and then travelling back to our home mooring - a bit tricky as David was scheduled to be involved in other things.  However a deal was struck, so we were on.

Working down Braunston

There were several things needing close consideration.  Much necessary stuff had been removed from Sickle prior to it going in the paint dock.  We had to work out what all that was, and ensure we had all key items necessary for 3 or 4 days on board.  Mercifully Colin was true to his word, and very little of the inevitable mess from removing all the paint back to metal had found its way inside the living space - we had very little additional cleaning up to do. We also needed to be aware of the short opening hours at both Buckby and Braunston locks.  Effectively we needed to be installed on the boat the previous night, if we were to get through both trouble free in the same day.  So we actually headed up to the mooring on the thursday afternoon/evening.

First time the name has been on the front in very many years.

It was great to be out with Sickle again - a very useful chance to do some boating whilst Flamingo could go nowhere, and Sickle on the Grand Union is a very different prospect from Flamingo on the Rochdale as well.

 

Goodness knows how many photos I've take at "Pub" lock over the years!

We think Sickle looks superb, (although given what it cost, I would have been very disappointed if she didn't!).  Flamingo is externally very "tired" and unlikely to get addressed for a year or two yet.  So it is very pleasing to once again be able to present at least one of the boats with its paintwork and sign-writing in very good order. 

Sickle is 6th amongst the 7 tugs stretched across the canal.

We had some tricky choices about exactly what scheme to use, and what directions to give Colin about the finer detail, but we think it has worked out very well indeed. Colin is a superb sign-writer, and amongst other things has entirely hand painted the "British Waterways Transport" logos, as well as painting "Sickle" onto the bows in an area that actual has Sickle's former British Waterways "asset number" crudely added in raised weld.  We didn't want to destroy that bit of Sickle's long history, and Colin having worked over the top of it has produced a result that has far outstripped what we thought might be possible.


High House Wharf to Braunston
Miles 10.5, Locks:13
Total Miles 10.5, Total Locks:13

Rescuing goslings, the notorious Lock 61 again, and some very bad news.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

Very late post for Friday 7th June 2019 - please see the explanation at the end.

Leaving Littleborough past other boats held up by Rochdale failure.

Because the weather forecast was for rain later in the day we started fairly early, getting going at just after 8 am. The sky was blue, with a few wispy clouds.

Down through Durn Lock - another one at a time lock - then we met up with Lynnette on Saltaire again, who has a friend, Paul, assisting with working the boat today.

 

More of the same - Bath & Beatty

There is a longish pound through Rochdale, and then we got Lock 49, which has been subject of a stoppage for nearly two weeks. We got the boats in the lock, and drew the paddles, but almost immediately Saltaire 'hung' (this is the boat catching on something as the water starts to empty out of the lock). Both boats are wider than many modern narrow boats, so this is always a danger, but no problem, it was spotted quickly, we 'dropped' the paddles and filled the lock again from the top. We moved Flamingo as far forward as possible, and Saltaire as far back as possible (without risking it on the cill at the back of the lock), then emptied the lock very slowly, checking all the pinch points all the time. The problem was that some of the coping stones at the top of the lock were slightly overhanging the rest of the lock, once we were past those the lock emptied with no further problems.

Totally grounded in narrows for a swing bridge.

Then on to three 'Blue Pits' locks just south of Rochdale. As we shut the gates for the last one, at about 12:15, we got the first few scattered raindrops. At about this time Lynnette got a phone call to tell us that Lock 66 was broken. That's further than we planned to go today, but if there is a stoppage, then we won't be able to get to Manchester tomorrow. It eventually turned out that due to 'boat impact' the 'mitre-post' on the bottom gates has been damaged, meaning that the gates won't seal. (Note: it later turned out that it had nothing to do with a boat - the lock sprang apart on its own)

the lock in Rochdale that had caused our first week of delay.

By the time we got to the Slattocks flight the heavens had opened. I've rarely seen quite so much rain - I suppose it's needed, but it made everything slippery and dangerous.

 

Clearing one of many propeller fouls on Saltaire.

Slattocks is supposed to be a corruption of 'South Locks', which makes some sense, but I always think that it should be some mild and affectionate insult - 'Ah, get on with you, you gurt slattock!'

 

Rescued goslings.

At one lock there were a pair of Canada Geese hissing at me, and waving their wings, but I couldn't see why. They don't usually do this if they haven't got goslings. Then I saw them, three very young goslings in the lock, just by Flamingo's bow. The parents had got out of the lock when the boats went in, but the babies couldn't make it up the couple of inches from the top of the water to the lock-side. I didn't expect to be able to do anything, but I knelt down at the lock-side and scooped the babies out one at a time, while the parents stood back - although I half expected an enraged goose to attack me. The babies seemed quite tired, stumbling as I put them onto the lock-side, but they waddled to their parents. Once they had gathered the babies up again the parents returned to threatening me.

We carried on down the flight, it was wet, cold and miserable for most of the way, although it eased to drizzle later on.

Very worrying "repair" to disused railway bridge at Lock 61!

At lock 61, which was the lock that we stuck very firmly in on the way up, we planned carefully. It was very clear that despite the reports, the lock had not been fixed. The pound below was very empty, so we ran some water down. We put Saltaire on the side of the gate that would open, and Flamingo behind the fixed gate. Then we slathered washing up liquid on the widest parts of the boats. Lynnette nudged the boat up to the point that the boat stuck, then opened the throttle as we tried 'bouncing' the other gate. Slowly, very slowly, Saltaire slid out of the lock. Then we tried with Flamingo. Once again, the boat left the lock slowly, but we were out in a fraction of the time that we took getting unstuck last time.

Two more locks and we were at the moorings. Quarter past four, about 8 hours in all. Tiring, but not a bad day.

Now we have to find out what is happening about Lock 66, and when we will be able to continue our journey again.

Note: This post was written the same day as what it refers to, but has deliberately not been published until 4 weeks later.  We decided that if we were going to have to leave a boat for periods on an unattended tow-path over 200 miles from our home, it was probably best to publicise the fact as little as possible.

Littleborough to Rose of Lancaster, Chadderton
Miles 8.7, Locks: 17
Total Miles 213.0, Total Locks: 242

A short day to set ourselves up for the longer ones

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Our overnight mooring with a view.

Yesterday we had made it across the Rochdale summit, after which all locks into Manchester are downhill.  We had considered trying to progress further down to Littleborough, but when I surveyed the state of the flight of 10 locks in total, I found some very low pounds, (a pound is the length of canal between two locks), and some short ones that were completely empty. 

 

Looking towards first lock on descent from the short summit.

We didn't have the experience of this canal to know how much water we would need to bring down into these pounds in order to get Flamingo's working boat depth through each of them, but the answer was at least "quite a lot".  Hence we didn't know how long it might take, so we decided to not try - once you start you really need to keep going, and we didn't want to run out of daylight, (or enthusiasm - which was by then a real risk!).

 

Impressive but derelict building besides Lock 42.

I had cycled down to meet other boaters who had spent more than a week at Littleborough waiting for Lock 49 to be fixed - unsurprisingly most wanted to get away in the morning (i.e. today) if possible, so I had let them know we were likely to stop where they were, and to try for a clean run through on Friday.

Absurdly short balance beam, with no alternate way to open gate.

We didn't need to make a particularly prompt departure from the summit to do such a short trip, so didn't actually start until around 10:00.  This may have been a good move, as there was some evidence that CRT might have partially replenished some of the lowest pounds from the night before.  However water levels were still very down from the outset.

 

Levels better here.

When water is short, travelling downhill through locks is much to be preferred to going uphill.  This is because you carry at least one lock of water down with you, but also if you do need to run additional water down you are not pinching it from where you need to go next.  In fact by going exceedingly cautiously,and picking a careful path through where we remembered the deepest water was going up, we were very pleased to run no additional water down at all.  The single lock that we emptied into each pound helped, and the two driest pounds were so very small that that one lock full produced enough depth for us to get to the next one - but only providing we went straight down the middle - no hope of getting near the sides, so I had to largely stay on the boat throughout.

Many locks on Northern Waterways sport these added reinforcements.

Towards the bottom of this sharp but steep descent things improved, with longer pounds kicking in. 

 

One of the few pounds worth winding the speed control up for.

At Littleborough all but four of the dozen or so boats that had been holed up here last night were now gone - hopefully all will now have passed the problematic lock 49 without issue.  We put Cath ashore at the final lock of our descent go go and shop, then David and I took Flamingo to fill with water and empty toilets on the far side of the canal.  While we were there the owner of a boat permanently moored there returned with his two dogs, one of which proceeded to immediately bite my leg!  I was sufficiently stunned by this to not have a right go at the owner as I should doubtless have done.  I am far too British, and am now sporting a sizeable blood blister.  The dog could have done this to anybody - I got the impression it was not unusual.  I was wrong not to make more of an issue out of it, and I'm annoyed now with myself that I didn't.

Final lock on a short day - we still did ten of them though

Cath arrived back along the tow-path just about at the point the water was full, so David and I "punted" the boat back over.  Even in sleepy Littleborough, it transpires, Cath can manage to find a bookshop not only selling books about Wales, but also actually written in Welsh.  The on-board book collection has grown again - no wonder Flamingo is constantly rubbing on the bottom of the canal!

Tomorrow we will again need to work a lot harder.

Summit to Littleborough
Miles 1.4, Locks: 10
Total Miles 204.2, Total Locks: 225

A day of dog related shenanigans

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

First lock of the day has a guillotine gate at the bottom end.

We wanted to get away fairly early, in case we might be able to get somewhere down the other side of the summit - perhaps as far as Littleborough.

My phone alarm went off at 7:00 am, but I was a bit sluggish and found it hard to get moving. We went and thumped on the back hatch to let David know that we wanted to get moving, but we couldn't hear any answer to our shouts. We need David to get up, not just because he is essential on a heavily locked section like the one that we would be tackling today, but also because the boat tiller is kept in the back cabin, and that's also where the controls are - we can't move the boat without standing in David's bedroom.

The Great Wall of Todmorden looks even larger today, somehow.

It was grey, chilly and overcast, but we were spared the pouring rain that we had yesterday afternoon. We got away from the mooring at 8:30, then up through the guillotine lock - which I really don't like. It's probably fine, but it's a different technique to most locks, so that I spend all my time double-checking everything. 

Impressive railway viaduct crosses the locks at Gauxholme

In that first pound Flamingo got stuck for the first time. Approaching a bridge the boat grounded, and was just not moving, there was just too much debris on the bottom of the canal, and the pound was down a little bit. We all tried pushing and pulling, heaving on ropes, while trying to pole off the 'scour' - nothing happened, so I went up to the next lock, which was full, to empty the water into the pound. I didn't have a great deal of hope, but there was a chance that the water rushing down would 'flush' the boat up a little, and we could escape the scour. In fact, it was possible to get Flamingo moving slowly, and we pulled her through the bridge hole while David stood on the boat with the 'boat shaft' trying to keep the boat away from the off-side, which was particularly shallow. In this situation it is actually often counter-productive to use the engine, even gently. Once there is power to the propeller the back of the boat 'digs in' to the water, pulling down onto whatever it is we are trying to float off.

Not the best wet dog and wet jeans photo ever taken, but you get the idea.

Then, in the flight which climbs up out of Todmorden we had just got to the top of a lock, the gate was open, and the boat was in neutral. Flamingo was most of the way towards one side of the lock, ready to go out of one gate (in broad locks narrow boats should only need one gate opened). A young woman walked past with an attractive dog, so Odin went over to say 'hello'. Max was on the non-towpath side of the lock with me, but he saw this attractive dog and decided that he was going to say 'hello' too. This isn't usually a problem, but instead of running over the narrow bridge at the 'foot' of the lock, he decided to cross Flamingo by jumping onto the 'gap' then trying to jump from there to the other side of the lock - a distance of over 7 feet. He could probably have done this if he had got a run-up at it, or if it hadn't been slightly upwards too (the pound above the lock was slightly down, so the deck of Flamingo was lower than the side of the lock).

Lunch break at Walsden

Max doesn't know that he can swim, and the rise from the water to the level of the gap on Flamingo is more than 2 foot. Poor Max was frantically paddling, and trying to get back on the boat. I just couldn't reach, and whilst Alan could, he wasn't easily able to drag him out. In the end David managed to haul him out, while Alan hung onto David's belt to stop him from falling headlong into the canal too.

The higher you go, the better it gets.

Max celebrated being rescued by shaking and soaking us all with canal water, sufficiently badly in Alan's case decided to change his jeans to the pair from yesterday's rainfall that had still not dried out, as they were drier than the ones Max had left him with.

Then onwards, we stopped for an hour at Walsden to cook burgers for lunch - then onwards again.

It really is like no other canal we have ever travelled on.

As we neared the summit a young woman in a pink top ran past me. I walked under the next bridge and saw a large, grey-ish dog running in the other direction and disappearing around a bend. I just assumed that it was with a walker somewhere ahead of me. Then the young woman ran back past me again, ‘I’ve lost my dog,’ she said. ‘If it’s a large grey dog I saw it running that way,’ I answered, and she ran off to look for it.

Getting closer to the summit.

At the next lock I saw a different woman approaching from behind, with the grey dog. However, as I walked towards her the dog ran off again. I threw a lead to David who set off on the folding bike to try to catch the dog. While he was away the second woman explained that she had found the dog on the main road.

Typical bridge across tail of lock on approach to the summit.

David returned with the dog, which we tied securely to a post by the lock, and David set off again towards the summit in search of the young runner. Unfortunately, the dog didn’t have any contact information on its collar.

Alan and I worked through a couple more locks, dealing with problems when Flamingo got stuck in the run-in to the lock, and taking the dog with us each time we moved on to the next lock.

It is very hard to take photos that 
emphasise just how spectacular it is.

David eventually returned, having been some considerable distance down the other side of the summit, and having spoken to quite a few people. He’d been into the pub, and someone had posted a message on a local FB group. The pub had agreed to look after the dog if we didn’t find the owner.

Today's lost dog was attractive, and remarkably calm without its owner.

At just this point the runner came into view – she must have been completely frantic. She was very grateful that we had keep the dog with us, and was horrified that the dog had been found on the main road.

I just wish that she’d put her phone number on the dog’s collar.

It seems a remarkable coincidence that each time when travelling near the Rochdale summit we have spent time reuniting a lost dog with its owner, but that is exactly what we have now done in both directions.

Top lock at the Eastern end of the summit.

Many of the paddles on this section are extremely stiff. By the time we got to the Summit pub I was completely exhausted, although it was only 4:00 pm. We moored and Alan went off to investigate the state of the pounds on the southern side of the summit, several of which are currently empty. He went to as far Littleborough, where he found the other historic boaters who'd been waiting for lock 49 to be repaired (we've heard today that it is now fixed). They were using their time constructively by sprucing up one of the locks in Littleborough.

Todmorden to Rochdale West Summit

Miles 3.9, Locks: 18

Total Miles 202.8, Total Locks: 215

Easier coming back than going the other way.

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

Hebden Bridge services - hard work getting even this close to the edge.

Until we had any understanding of the scale of the problems at the closed Lock 49 in Rochdale we had decided to stay put at Hebden Bridge. It is a very nice place, and there are certainly far worse places to be forced to stay longer than you had expected. However a nagging doubt remained that we had engine problems on both of he last two days we actually moved anywhere, and although the engine has run fine since just to charge batteries, we weren't confident what might happen under the greater load needed to power the boat.

I'm still being told there is no space for one of these on the boat.

As of last evening there was no firm news from CRT about expected fix date for the lock, but at least it seemed it should now be measurable in days, rather than weeks. We therefore decided that today we would move away from Hebden Bridge, if only to see what the engine did or didn't do. Todmorden is not as an appealing place to spend multiple days as Hebden Bridge is, but we had overnighted there on the way in, and if things went OK, could do so again this evening.

The ascent out of Hebden Bridge

We made a final stop for services - even there it is far to shallow - whilst Cath did a quick shop at the very expensive Co-Op that has been our main source of provisions for well over a week now. The water tap proved to be so slow that we abandoned attempts to top up our tank.

Levels were generally better than when we went the other way.

Once away we made slow but steady progress, on our own this time, with nobody to share the lock work. As steerer I made a concious decision to do everything slowly and cautiously - the canal is too shallow for much else, anyway, and I didn't want to over-tax the engine until I had a better idea that it would stay behaving normally. Additionally we have lightened the back of the boat to reduce its draught somewhat, but this makes it slower to stop, and I wanted to master that before I encountered a situation where I wanted to stop in a hurry, but couldn't.

But the pole was still required occasionally.

To some extent we were helped by knowing some of the places either we or Saltaire had grounded heavily in the other direction where you would not have expected to, so these were treated with particular caution. In some cases there simply is not the depth to accommodate Flamingo without going aground whatever you do, but  we were able to cajole her over the bumps.

Having just finally made it through the very worst point.

By far the worst obstruction is by Bridge 22 where the canal suffers "garden now filling up the canal" syndrome.  A sign warns you to proceed slowly and keep to the right - where, of course, you still run firmly aground. This time I wasn't going to thrash the engine, so instead much tugging on of ropes was done - at first to very little effect. Eventually, when even David was seriously suggesting calling CRT, we used a combination of gentle engine power, with nobody on the boat, whilst Cath and David did the rope tugging, and I attempted to keep the boat just the required distance from the tow-path. Generally this had to be more than 1 foot, but less than 2 feet - that's how ridiculously marginal it is. The level was "on weir" - had it been down at all, I think we might still be there. CRT need to solve problems like this with a dredger - not by putting up signs, but otherwise ignoring a nearly blocked canal.

Cath and the dogs walked the whole way.

After that there were no significant problems, although I was aware just how hard Cath was having to struggle with the least well "maintained", (and I use that word sarcastically!), of the paddle gear.  By now however the rain was coming down hard, and by the time we reached "Tod", we were soaked and cold, and glad we had not set any greater target for our first day of moving again.




 

Typical scenery, although now raining heavily.

Best of all though, the engine ran faultlessly throughout the day, albeit never put under great stress.  We don't really know what the problem was, so we can't be confident it has now gone away, but at least  day with no issues does give us some much needed confidence. Onwards and upwards, (literally!)









Hebden Bridge to Todmorden
Miles 4.5, Locks: 10
Total Miles 198.9, Total Locks: 197

Some of what we did when not involved with the boat - Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

The HNBC event was broadly over a long weekend, but by the Monday things were slowing down, and people were starting to slip away.

In the morning Cath and I had slogged up "The Buttress" to Heptonstall for an interesting tour of that historic village by an HNBC member that helped with the event organisation.  David and I also wanted to visit the Keighey & Worth Valley Railway, but were not sure we could fit it in, (if only we had known how much time we would subsequently be forced to spend in Hebden Bridge...)

David phoned me in Heptonstall to say if I got back in time there was a "Bronte Bus" that ran to there directly.  By then I wasn't sure it was possible, but abandoned Cath to make my way back to the boat as fast as possible.  Let's just say that descending "The Buttress" in a hurry is more hazardous than going up.  Most of it is very large cobbles, covered in "green stuff" that is slippery when wet.  I nearly went down on my backside three times - thank goodness there is a continuous handrail for much of its length! 

I did manage to get back to the boat just in time to grab necessary things, and head with David for the bus - fortunately it leaves from the railway station, only minutes from where we were moored.

 

It was actually a bit of a significant day for me.  I have only in fairly recent months got around to applying for my "Senior Citizen bus pass, and have not actually made use of it before now - this was my first legitimate "free" ride on a public bus since I had that entitlement on Brighton Corporation buses when I worked briefly for them as a driver in the 1970s.

 

How much easier is bus travel now than it was back in the last century?  Not only do buses generally display the name of the next stop, this one also read it out to us.  My phone was quite low on charge as we boarded, but David produced a lead, and I was able to plug it in to charge - the steam heated carriages on the KWVR would not provide that facility!

 

We arrived at Oxenhope shortly after a train had left - we knew that would be the case, but they are regular, and it allowed us time to grab a meal and drinks.

 

The line is less than 5 miles long, and has about a station every mile - quite unusual.  A round trip only takes about an hour, but our rover tickets, (there was £3 off mine for being a "Senior"!), allowed us to travel much of the line twice, some of it three times, and to sample both locomotives that were in team that day.  It was a "Standards" day, as it turned out with two "Standard" tender locomotives, one of power class 4, and the other smaller at power class 2.  These tend to have similar "build dates" to me and Cath, but appear better maintained than I am, (though not of course as well maintained as Cath!) 

It is perhaps not as full an entertainment package for the enthusiast as some of the other preserved lines, now anywhere between 2 and 4 times longer, but is still a well presented and well run railway.  The only shadow over the day was the miserable platform assistant who berated me for having a window down because they had the steam heating on - I would have shut it willingly when asked, but his attitude was not what you would hope for on something that relies on the goodwill of its customers.

Everything ran on time, including our equally good bus that took us back to Hebden Bridge.  However many of the towns and villages passed have a 20 mph speed limit, and I'm not sure the bus driver was looking very much at his speedometer - it felt quite exhilarating at times!  I'm glad I wasn't driving - and so probably would most of the other passengers have been!