A Poor Start To The Planned Big Trip

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

We should have been away from our home mooring early, and on a fairly aggressive schedule. We are supposed to be going to the Historic Narrow Boat Club gathering at Hebden Bridge on the Rochdale Canal in around two and a half weeks time. This is a big trip, about 183 miles and 173 locks in one direction alone, and we are on a mission to get to Manchester, because passage over the Rochdale Canal requires travelling in convoys which the HNBC have agreed with the Canal and River Trust to try to work around the very limited water resources on the Rochdale.

Buckby flight

However we are not doing very well so far! When we came to light the gas fridge before moving off the moorings this morning, it completely refused to stay alight. No amount of coaxing would keep it alight, and the diagnosis based on a few internet searches and judicious use of a multimeter seemed to be a failed thermocouple - a fairly specialist item. "Universal" thermocouples can be bought at Screwfix or Toolstation, but they are not "universal" enough, as the one in the fridge is 140cm long, and "universal" ones are about 50cm shorter. A fairly local camping outlet could identify the part, but didn't have it in stock. Eventually I decided to drive there anyway, and see if we could improvise. I managed to buy something very similar, but branded Thetford rather than Dometic, which is what our fridge is. Could it be made to work? The short answer was "yes, eventually", but by now it was the afternoon.

About as far as CRT allowed us to go today.

We still hoped we might make it to Braunston, but that was not to be. Water saving measures at Buckby locks mean there are overnight stoppages from 5:00 pm to 9:00 am.  The last passage into the affected locks is supposed to be at 4:00 pm, but a volunteer keeper had chained one up long before this time. Eventually after a long wait we were allowed through that one, but not the one locked up after that, so our attempts to regain time ground to a halt. We are pretty miffed, because had the locks not been locked up before 4:00pm we would definitely have cleared them by 5:00 pm, and carried on to Braunston.

Anyway today was Cath's birthday, so we walked up the rest of the flight for a meal at the New Inn. In its usual style I would class it as pleasant enough, but certainly not exceptional. I would also like the New Inn far better if they did not now have a "no dogs" policy - it used to allow dogs in to certain areas, and is frankly large enough that they still could, and still have adequate "dog free" space.

Tomorrow we will need to consider the implications of not having even managed half a day's boating today, when we certainly needed to put in a full one.

However, winding back a bit, the short stretch of canal we travelled today usually has some fairly rich pickings for historic boat enthusiasts.

Here is a selection of most, (but not all), of those we saw, from the very shiny, to the very derelict.....

The unloved pair Bainton and "Berkhamsted" (actually believed to be the Ayr)

Until very recently another unloved boat - the Tadworth

Southern Cross & Cedar

Owl & Empress

Ian - a wooden boat

Mary

Seaford - like Flamingo a converted "Large Northwich".

William

Butty Bakewell, now paired with a modern boat.

High House Wharf to Buckby Lock 8
Miles 5.8, Locks: 5
Total Miles 5.8, Total Locks: 5