Sarah's entry - Tuesday, 29th August

At 12.30am last night, we were woken by the sound of a motorbike engine passing along the towpath by our boat at high speed. It woke us both up, in time to hear the silence as it stopped, and then came back again. The rider went straight past us, but the fear had been laid in our minds. We were, to put it mildly, quaking in our boots, or in this case, our tiny bunks. What, we thought, would we do, if this rider came back with ten of his motorbike mates, intent on trashing a lonesome boat, moored in the middle of nowhere? Would they slash our ropes? Set fire to us? Smash our windows and? Or worse… these were the kinds of thoughts running through our night time heads. Penny got prepared. Glasses on, so she could leap out of bed at a moment's notice and not fall over, phone number of British Waterways at the ready, 999 if necessary, and shoes positioned at the ready. Sarah shut her eyes tightly, and tried to push out the visions of the ten motor bikers returning, whilst listening to the sounds of them in the distance revving their engines. By half past two, they had not returned, so it was assumed they were not coming. Penny got very little sleep that night.

Come the morning, we set off from the lock at 8am, just as Paul and Diana of ‘Madeley’ were approaching, with whom we had gone through Standedge Tunnel. We braved the next ten locks of the Huddersfield Broad in tandem. These are broad locks – and fit two boats side by side. There were several narrow escapes, where ‘Gosling’ got caught on obstructions in the lock, or her nose got wedged along the front gate, or the lip of the lock. ‘Madeley’, sixty foot, was deftly helmed by Diana to keep her rear end away from the ‘cill’ as we descended in each lock. It was great to travel with Paul and Diana, as we found that the second half of the day, when we had parted ways, took twice as long to got through each lock – from fifteen minutes to half an hour. We passed from the Huddersfield Broad to the Calder and Hebble – Coopers Bridge, lock no. one, takes you onto this navigation which is in fact the river. It widens; you feel the tidal influence. The locks at this point needed the use of a wooden handspike. The paddles were so heavy at times, that Sarah strained for a minute to bring the mechanism up even one inch. Through the guillotine gate at Salterhebble. We reflected on these deep, twenty foot giants, the way the boat bangs around inside them, the sheer size and weight of these designs. And we were amazed at our relative confidence in comparison to a few weeks ago. We also reflected on how much we have learnt from our travelling companions, many of whom have been traversing these waters and handling their boats for years. We felt, and rightly so, proud at the end of this day, for how far we have come, and how much we have learnt. Today crept in beginnings of the nostalgia for the amazing journey we have completed, and the sense of its imminent end. Tonight, we moored up in the Halifax Arm, a dead end, disused part of the canal. A bit grotty, and with the scent of sewage works. Amy came to visit – our guest of honour really beginning to become a welcomed regular! We drank some wine. It was lovely to see Amy again, and we arranged that the next day, when we are to arrive in Sowerby Bridge where she lives – she would come to the canal to watch us go through the three deep locks there.

Earlier in the day, at lunchtime, we stopped off in the centre of Brighouse, and went to a pub with Paul and Diana. Tried to log on but no luck. When we got back to the boat, we found we had access, so having charged up in the pub, we sat for a while and ate soup, and I emailed the Hebden Bridge Times, Sussex Express, and Edinburgh Evening News, giving details of our journey, so that they could feature our story.