What more could possibly go wrong? Well, lots, actually!

(Boat Flamingo - posted by Alan)

We have spent the duration of the gathering at Hebden Bridge still facing away fom Manchester. Our allocated mooring was actually slightly away from the majority of the historic boats, through one additional bridge. At some point we needed to turn Flamingo around, ready for its planned departure the following morning. Cath's brother and his wife, Paul and Claire, who now live locally, were scheduled to visit, so we thought we would get the "winding", (turning the boat around), done early. We had to go down only one lock, to a marked "winding hole", turn and come back up again through the lock. What could possibly go wrong?

Well just about everything, actually! When we got to the winding hole, levels in the pound were already low, and it quickly became obvious that deposited debris, including large rocks would make it very hard to get our front end in on that side sufficiently to get the back end round at the other. We had several attempts to position the bow, and eventually found one spot that would give us a bit more length across the canal. However this meant the bow was firmly nestled between rocks on each side, so had now no prospect of being moved much either to left or right.

As we tried to bring the back around, it was clearly going to be right against the tow-path. There was just enough length for our 71' 8", but certainly not the depth, and we grounded out.  No amount of engine running, tugging on ropes would shift us.
 

Today produced very few photos - there was just too much else going on.

Then other boats started turning up in both directions, whilst we remained jammed across the cut. We often find that if you have a dozen people present, you will have a dozen different views on how to solve a problem - that was certainly the case here. Additionally when you are stood next to a Lister engine going flat out, people don't seem to comprehend that you can't possibly hear them, and think you are being rude by ignoring them. I'm not being rude - when I shout that I can't hear you, it is because I can't hear you!

They tried pushing to no effect

A CRT man turned up having been resolving a different issue at the next lock down, and told us no way should we have attempted to turn there - it was, he insisted, only for a maximum length of 57 feet, not for over 70 feet. He didn't want to hear that the guide doesn't mark it as a short one, ad that there is no sign there showing a maximum length. His 57 foot figure was anyway ridiculous, as we were within a foot or two of having the required width. I asked him how I could possibly know it was supposed to be restricted length - he had no answer.
The boats trying to get to Sowerby Bridge had a booking to go through Tuel Lane lock, and were quite understandably impatient to get through, but by now the level had dropped enough that even trying to get us back out to the way we were originally pointed was proving nigh impossible.

Lines were tied to us from those boats, and they tried pulling, then pushing us, but the boat only keeled over alarmingly with things falling down inside.  Nobody but us seemed able to comprehend that with the bow carefully positioned between rocks on either side that it couldn't possibly move either to left or to right, and much effort (and exasperation!) was wasted as a result.

Pulling also did nothing - other than tipping stuff out of cupboards.

Then the engine died!  David in the meantime had decided we had to shed weight, so was busy man-handling a lot of concrete and stone ballast out of the back end of the boat, and on to the tow-path.  Many of the onlookers were trying to be helpful, either by pulling on ropes, or by moving lumps of ballast. Finally by reducing the draught, the back end was sufficiently free that it was possible to drag it around to the point we were facing in the original direction, and the bow could be moved out of the shallows.

At this point the boats the we had moved on, and we were left largely to our own devices, other than that Cath's brother and wife had arrived in the middle of proceedings, (we know how to host a family gathering!)  We moved the boat up, still pointing the wrong way, to the nearest point we could moor it, left the ballast on the bank near the winding hole, and retired back to Hebden Bridge for a family meal and to deliberate on what happened next. Our chances that we would now be leaving for Manchester tomorrow, as planned, seemed slim!

A very pleasant meal was enjoyed with good company in Hebden Bridge.  Max was very pleased, (well ecstatic, actually!), to see Cath's brother and his wife - obviously he know them well from when they were regular visitors at Cath's mother, when Max was her dog.  However more ambitious plans that Cath and her brother had had now had to be shelved, and we had to send them on their way after the meal.

This is perhaps only half the ballast removed from Flamingo.

Back at Flamingo we were now well separated from the pile of ballast that had been discarded on the tow-path - even had we been able to get Flamingo back to it levels were such that we could have not have got the boat close enough to load it on.  So instead David made repeat laborious trips with our rather inadequate folding trolley to retrieve at least half of it, whilst I stacked it back in the recess under the counter on the boat.  How the trolley didn't collapse I'm unsure, but it just about didn't. I took the decision to proceed with much of the ballast temporarily left behind. I want to see if the boat could stop OK with less ballast, as being shallower draughted would otherwise ease our passage on this canal.  David was concerned we were leaving too much behind - as to some degree was I.

It now seemed we would have to continue to Sowerby Bridge to turn, as the CRT man had advised, but he had not indicated this would need two booked passages through Tuel Lane lock - for which normally at least 24 hours notice is required. Our schedule seemed shot to pieces.

However there was one more indicated winding hole before Sowerby Bridge - would that one be any better?  The simple answer was "no, it was far worse" - it was so badly blocked on the far side, with silt at least three feet deep, that we had no prospect of getting the bow anywhere that allowed the back any chance of being able to swing around.  So thank you  CRT - that is two consecutive winding holes, neither indicating unsuitable for a full length boat, and both in your Boater's Guide, neither of which is usable. We were now to late to call CRT about bookings at Tuel Lane, but we had no choice to press on in that direction.

However we had barely got going again before the engine started misfiring badly, and coming close to dying as it had done when being worked hard as we had tried to turn at the first winding hole. I had put that down to over-heating, but now we were just cruising normally, and the engine was not under stress. I nursed it, and avoided a complete stall, but could only creep along, as any attempt to open it up made the problem far worse.  It took a while to find anywhere to moor close to the side, so we could get the dogs off, but once we did, we stopped. There were too many issues, and it was now too late, and we were too tired to solve any of them today.

Our supplies were very low, we'd eaten all the bread, all that was left was sausages and potatoes. Additionally, in an attempt to get the boat unstuck from the bottom we'd also run a lot of water down the sink as our water tank is towards the back of the boat. We were seriously in need of supplies and water.

Hebden Bridge to Luddendon Foot
Miles 3.1, Locks:4
Total Miles 186.7, Total Locks: 177