Penny’s entry – Sunday, 27th August
I was in the shower at 7.30am when I realised that everything was tilting – the boat was at an angle. I rushed through the shower, dressed and climbed on to the towpath so that I could loosen the ropes and allow the boat to level out in deeper water. This canal is very shallow. As I started, there was a sudden loss of even more water and the boat tipped to an angle of 33 degrees! Panic began to rise and I hammered on the hatch to get Sarah out of bed and out of the boat. She responded as if I was just being bossy and trying to get her out of bed before she wished to do so! I hammered and shouted some more and she emerged, somewhat dishevelled and looking irritated – until she saw the situation. We struggled in vain to push the boat off and could hear things crashing to the floor inside the boat. Suddenly Chris appeared to help us. Thank you so much! He had set off a minute earlier and was just going into the first lock when he saw our predicament. After much heaving and heavy breathing we were finally free and decided to keep moving, not wishing to get stuck again. We shared the locks again, as we’d done yesterday morning, and in 8 hours we got through 23 of the worst locks we’ve encountered to date. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal passes through some very beautiful country, but the British Waterways have no funds to maintain the work done with the Millenium Grant which restored this waterway. Some of the locks are falling apart, all of them are extraordinarily stiff and heavy, and further down there is a huge vandalism problem (wheelie bins, etc. thrown in to obstruct boats, paddles opened so that water is lost over night). Sarah and I shared the day and the work. Whilst I was helming I finished getting ready (after the hurried shower) put the boat to rights and made the breakfast and coffee. Sarah ate her porridge whilst walking between locks. Whilst Sarah was helming she got ready (but didn’t have a shower!) made the lunch, and polished the brass. I ate my lunch at a lock while it was filling up. Amazing what one can do in short bursts when the boat is idling outside a lock or actually inside one! We worked hard and methodically and there were some interesting areas on the canal. Some of the tunnels were very, very low and at one I had to suddenly go into reverse in order to remove and save our chimneys. We reached the centre of Huddersfield - Aspley Marina – and stopped for water, emptied the loo etc. As we moored, who should we see waving from the other side of the canal? Amy, Scarlett and baby Emanuel had made a surprise visit! It was so lovely to see them and to give them a trip in the boat when we moored up in the marina (where there is POWER – oh joy of joys!) for the night. The first task was to wash practically all our clothes in the laundry! Then we met Chris, Pam and Derek in the pub and had supper together (when we should have been working on this site! We did need a little rest after those 23 locks though…) We have now travelled 308 miles and worked through 219 locks. |