Undoubtedly the very hardest day's boating we have ever done

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Cath)

(Late post for Monday 20th May)

Note: We have become aware that quite a few non-boater friends are reading this blog, and we are often using boater terms that may not always be obvious. For this post I have added some annotation for some of the terms used.

Let battle commence

The seven boats that were heading up the Rochdale canal were gathered in the basin. Flamingo and Saltaire were scheduled as the first two boats to set off at 7:30. We would be met by CRT volunteers a couple of locks up.

Struggling out of channel past "the shed"

Because the Rochdale canal is prone to vandalism, especially in the Manchester area, we were equipped with CRT ‘anti-vandal handcuff keys’. Most locks would need to be unlocked, but as we had several boats close behind us we wouldn’t need to re-lock them.

All boats held shortly after the start for lack of water

No problems at the first couple of locks, then Saltaire got stuck passing a moored "floating shed" - a somewhat infamous "vessel" that has challenged the question "does this actually count as a boat?". The "shed" was sufficiently wide that the boats had to go ‘out of channel’ to pass it. The very deep draughted historic boats can ground in the shallower water and get stuck. Although I was on the tow-path with the dogs, I couldn’t see Lynette on Saltaire as she was on the other side of the "shed". I was aware that she was trying all the usual tricks to free the boat, but nothing seemed to be happening. Eventually, the boat began to move, but it would set the scene for the day.

Moving again, at last.

At the third lock we were met by the CRT volunteer lock-keepers, who told us to moor up, there was no water in the pounds (#1) ‘for miles’. We sat down for a long wait.

In the end we were free too go in about an hour and a half, but all the pounds were low and the boats scrapped the bottom. They also stuck going into the locks, as they grounded on the cills (#2). At every lock after the first few we needed to have teams of boaters hauling on ropes to get both boats into the lock. These strapping men were from the other boats in the convoy. Fortunately they were far more experienced at boating in these challenging situations than we are, and were kind enough to provide much-needed muscle. 

There are some seriously deep locks

Saltaire seemed to get stuck even more than Flamingo, which puzzled us, as Saltaire is, like Flamingo, a ‘Large Northwich’ ‘Town Class’ (#3) – and so will have the same underwater profile at the back end, and, if similarly ballasted down, the same draught. Saltaire seemed to be ballasted to be no more than an inch deeper in the water at the back end than Flamingo, but got stuck far more easily. We were surprised to find that sometimes standing a couple of people on the front was enough to change it from impossible to move, to moving easily into the lock.

SERIOUSLY deep

Saltaire also seemed to pick up quite a few 'blade-fulls' (#4), stopping the engine dead - obviously losing all power and steering at the same time.

 

A recurring theme

Our saviour Ian Mac, and the offending object from the lock cill

At one lock it proved impossible to shut the bottom gates. Although we had several burly blokes trying to shut the gate there seemed to be something squashy stopping the gate shutting. We waited while someone walked up from one of the following boats with a keb (#5). Ian Mac, the CRT Volunteer, fished around on the cill with the keb from the back of one of the boats and managed to remove something that looked like a distorted carrier from the back of a motorbike.
 

The business end of a keb - a very useful tool on a canal as bad as this one.

Flamingo has Saltaire in tow

At about three miles out of Manchester, with some 15 locks done, we came up through a lock at the time when kids were going home from school. Some of them watched over the bridge below the lock, discussing what was going on. Ellie, perhaps 11 or 12 years old, was particularly fascinated. She wanted to know about how the lock worked, why we were in the boats, and she asked many questions about the history of the boats. She got a phone call from home asking where she was. "It's alright, I'm watching the boats in the lock." As we left the lock she began to walk up the towpath with me, telling me that she lived in that area. "Do you like living here?" I asked. "S'oright, I s'pose, but things have been getting really bad recently, you know, murders and gunshots." I wasn't surprised about the phone call checking why she wasn't home yet.

Alan can still raise a smile at this stage.

The next three locks are narrow (Tannersfield locks), not because they were designed as narrow locks, but because of subsidence. We had to separate from Saltaire, and go on alone for a while. Meanwhile Saltaire had picked up another 'blade-full', and Lynette needed to go down the 'weed hatch' (#6) to clear the prop.

 

One technique for getting a boat into a lock.

 

Alan re-enacts a scene from Star Wars

 

Towing again

 

View back to Saltaire

David performs his civic duty, removing shopping trolleys from the cut...

At the second lock up, there were 3 shopping trolleys in the 'apron' of the lock. David got the 'short shaft' (#7), and fished them out of the cut, dripping weed. He then took them back to Morrisons.

... and returning them to Morrisons!

There is a fairly long pound after Tannersfield, so I got back onto the boat, having walked the dogs up until that point. We set off for the next lock, expecting to see Saltaire arrive behind us. However, the next boat we saw was Daphne. Bob, one of the owners, told us that Saltaire was still trying to clear the prop, and we should go on alone, as he was travelling with Swan.

After Failsworth, (where we got stuck on a mud 'scour' again, and were rescued by the experience, knowledge and muscle of Bob, from Daphne).  We were told by Ian Mac the CRT Volunteer Lock-keeper to either stop in half an hour at the Boat and Horses - where it was difficult to get to the side, or keep going for an hour and a quarter and stop at the Rose of Lancaster, where moorings were good. 

Still going, but by now travelling alone

We saw the moorings at the Boat and Horses, we couldn't have got within five or six feet of the bank - and there would have been no way to get the dogs on or off, so we carried on to the Rose of Lancaster, arriving at about 8 pm. No problem, the website said that they served food until 9 pm, but with a quick phone call to check it turned out that they stopped serving food at 8 pm. So, I cooked something simple, and we went to the pub with the other boaters who had turned up by then - all except Lynette and Sue on Saltaire. The story in the pub was that they were turning back, so we knew that we wouldn't be working with them on the next day.

Something a bit different - a vertical lift bridge.

The day was something over 12 hours, almost all of it was fighting to get into locks, or struggling to get off mud scours, or shopping trolleys, or whatever the good people of Manchester had thrown into the canal. Everyone decided to get off early the next day, so I set the alarm for 6 am, expecting to go at about 7:30.

VOCABULARY for non-boaters:

#1 'Pound' - the length of canal between two locks, it could be a very short distance, or it could be many miles.

#2 'Cill' - the gates of the lock close against an underwater ledge, often constructed of stone, which limits their movement and forms the water seal. However, it is not unusual for rubbish to get caught against the "cill", and prevent the gates from shutting, then rendering the lock inoperable until cleared.  The issue is that it is several feet below water, and you can't actually see what the problem might be.

#3 'Town Class' - in the mid 1930s the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company commissioned a fleet of large carrying boats from Harland and Wolff at Woolwich, Yarwoods at Northwich and Walkers at Rickmansworth. The larger of these were named after towns, hence 'Town Class'. Flamingo was originally called 'Letchworth', but was renamed by Willow Wren who bought her in the early 1960s.

#4 'Blade-full' - when your prop (propeller) picks up the rubbish that has been thrown into the canal. It can be anything from plastic bags upwards. Things we have had on the 'blade' in the past include: double duvet, carpet, jogging bottoms, specialised hospital escape equipment, rope mixed up with fishing line - including fishing hooks and a motorcycle tyre. This can stop your engine dead - but not your boat, which will carry on in the same direction.

#5 'Keb' - a sort of rake on a very long shaft, and with the tines at 90 degrees to the shaft used for getting rubbish out of the canal. An invaluable item, but seldom carried on a boat because they are large and unwieldy.  Fortunately some boats attempting this trip had one, as we did not.

#6 'Weed hatch' - modern boats have a hatch in the bottom of the boat (above the water level, and with a removable lid) which allows access to the prop to remove rubbish. Most historic boats don't have 'weed hatches', Saltaire is unusual that it has been modified to have one.

#7 'Short shaft' - pole about 8 feet long, with a robust steel hook hook on the end - the modern day equivalent is often called a "boat hook".  On the other hand a 'Long shaft' is the long pole, (maybe 15 or 16 feet)  used to help get the boat off a mud scour when it has grounded, or to push a boat away from a bank - what most people would call a 'barge pole'.
 

Manchester to Rose of Lancaster Pub
Miles 7.2, Locks: 20
Total Miles 165.1, Total Locks: 118