Going down hill

 

After a good night moored next to this sign (which more dog walkers should take note of)  . We pulled pins at 07.55 and cruised the 50 yards to the first lock of the day.

Arriving at the first lock which is 42e we soon discovered that the bottom gate paddles have a restrictor fitted to them so they could only be opened half way.

Not only that but to make matters even worse the next lock had to be filled before we could drop down. This was the same for several of the locks as we went down the flight . Needless to say most of the locks on the Eastern side of the tunnel are just as hard to work as the ones on the West side.

After nearly 5 hours of locking down we eventually picked up this mooring on a lock landing which was on lock 31E . We had been told by Canal and River Trust that mooring in any of the short pounds was not recommended and they said there would not be a problem with using a lock landing as there was very little traffic on this canal. Normally this would be a massive no no and would be frowned upon and it’s something we have never done before.  As it was we never saw another boat for the entire time we were moored here.

This boat came through Standedge tunnel after us and carried on down the flight . They picked up this mooring on the lock flight below 31E and after mooring went to the Olive Branch for a bite to eat . 2 hours later they returned to find that their boat had sunk . It seems that the pound somehow emptied and the boat tilted over . The pound then filled and the water came in to the boat through the doors and sinks inside the boat. After seeing this we were so glad that we moored where we did ,but felt so sorry for the crew of the sunken boat.

There’s something seriously wrong at some of these locks .When the lock above is let down it goes over the towpath on the lock below and as you can see it’s slowly but surely washing the towpath away.

This is another first for us . We have never done a Guillotine style lock before and this one just above the town of Slaithwaite and it needed Canal and River Trust operatives to work it , which meant us having to book our passage through a couple of days earlier.

With the water drained in the lock and Inca on her way out you can see how it works. When the lock is full to lower it all that needs to be done is to lift the paddle that’s built in to the gate. Then when empty the whole gate is lifted up to allow us to exit the lock.

Slaithwaite is one of the only places we have been through where the canal runs next to the main street.

That’s Inca moored just below that Chimney in the distance and it will do us for the night to allow daughter Chloe to come and fetch Curly.

After a great 3 weeks it was time to say good bye to number on Granddaugter Curly .As always it’s a very sad time for us and there where one or two tears . Chloe had a five and a half hour drive from their home in Totnes ,Devon to pick Curly up and she was not looking forward to the journey back . Hopefully for the Summer holidays we should be a bit closer to Devon.

Tomorrow and we push on again towards Huddersfield and hopefully it won’t be too long before we are off this hard working canal and onto The Huddersfield Broad which we hope will be better than the narrow.

                                                                                                                       Happy Days