Category Archives: Dry Dock

To The Other End. 13th September.

Blind mans stretch to Winsford to Vale Royal Visitor Moorings

Some shore leave for Tilly as we did our morning routine, she was gone for quite a while but returned before we’d finished breakfast, the doors firmly closed behind her. Time to move on, we’d got the rest of the Weaver to cruise even though it would have been nice to be moored up for a day. Boats had already started going past, NB Lyndsey Jane had pulled onto the pontoon below the boat lift. As we rounded the next bend she could be seen winding and heading back to go up the lift, their time on the river over.

We soon caught up with a boat ahead of us, this was Sabrina on her electric boat. She pulled into the moorings in Northwich, there was chance to say a hello, we were carrying on.

Mick tried calling ahead to Hunts Lock. We had two phone numbers, neither of them worked! We’d have to hope someone would see us. First we were to cruise past Northwich dry dock. Here many old boats are moored, including Tyseley, Mikron’s boat, there were also several boats that used to moor in Stone. Two boats sat high up on a sideways slip (not sure what they are called) and boats were most probably in the dry dock under the viaduct which is reached from above Hunts Lock.

Activity could be seen at the lock, this and Vale Royal Lock are both manually operated, lots of handles to turn just like the clown at the end of Camberwick Green. A boat was coming down, perfect.

Our turn, we passed our rope up to the Lock Keeper, he tied it round a bollard and then as we rose up he passed it back down. Mick mentioned about the phone number not working. Apparently there had been a problem with the mobile used at the lock so a new sim had been got, this came with a new number. At the lift we were meant to be given a leaflet, I suspect they’d not bothered as it would have disintegrated in the rain last Sunday. We checked the number, his phone rang. He’d let Vale Royal Locks know we were on our way.

The Lock Cottage with it’s immaculate hedge is for sale, it comes with a mooring and it’s garden reaches the end of the lock island.

Now we passed old boat yards on the west bank, several boats sat out on the hard, some under cover. A couple of old fire engines too and a wooden boat shrouded under weather torn tarpaulins.

The number of boats along here has thinned out from 13 years ago, we remember quite big ships.

At Vale Royal Locks the lock was waiting for us, we just couldn’t see it as it was tucked in between the bigger lock and a weir that was bobbing us about. Rope passed up, gates wound closed behind us and up we came. Here our discussion about locks with swing bridges over them continued. We are now up to 8 locks with this layout across the system, we’ve been through all of them except Jesus Lock on the River Cam.

Now the top reach of the river to cruise. We passed a nice stretch of moorings soon after the lock, a good amount of space should we want to come back to it.

**The oldest working mine in the country**

What was that up ahead? An enclosed pit head? Yep Winsford Rock Salt Mine. A Looooooong conveyor stretched along the bank of the river to one of those salt igloo shaped buildings. It produces on average 1,500,000 tonnes of rock salt a year, used to grit roads in the winter months. The mine was first opened up in 1844, a down turn in the rock salt market forced it to close in 1892 but it reopened in 1928 when another mine near by was subject to flooding. The mine has over 160 miles of tunnels and still has reserves that are estimated to be able to last until 2076. In some of the empty tunnels documents are stored, the National Achieve have over 20 miles of storage.

Mounds of spoil or is it rock salt line the banks, behind trees more industrial units hide. Then the first mooring at Winsford showed itself, sadly with a burnt out narrowboat on it. Under the two bridges then round to the right then a hand break turn into the small basin which faces out onto the flash. We held back as a boat reversed out, then we tried mooring on the side away from the car park, but would have needed long legs to reach the bank. The other side was better and we settled down for a late lunch.

Some supplies to see us back to at least Middlewich were needed. The nearest supermarket Morrisons. Only down side was that we seemed to have to cross what felt like a bypass several times. We avoided it by staying on the river, but then had to cross at the next bridge to find a crossing where we’d not be run over. Another dice with death at a round about, Winsford is not intended for pedestrians!

**We hadn’t realised we’d been off CRT water**

We quickly made a decision that our mooring might be noisy this evening. Several vans were parked up and it had the look of a good place for deals to be done, add to that the number of geese and swans, it could end up being quite a noisy night. Oleanna was backed out, winded and we returned to the nice stretch of moorings above Vale Royal Locks, sadly after cat curfew!

This morning I’d started to write yesterdays blog, I finished it at lunchtime, just needed to be proof read. I logged in to do so, only to find three quarters of the post had vanished! The IT department couldn’t find it, I always click save, it just hadn’t! How annoying now I’ll have to write it all again!

2 locks, 11.6 miles, 1 U turn, 1 flash not investigated, 2 wrong phone numbers, 1 right one noted, 160 miles, 3 speedy roads, 43 swans, 25 geese, 1 cuddly toy goose, 1 slice of white sliced on our solar, 0 cat shore leave, 1 lovely mooring, 0.75 blog post vanished.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/cq3t1XNKoAeyyKXy8

Castleford Locks. 10th March

Castleford Visitor Moorings

It started to rain last night and was still going for it this morning. Not torrential rain, but as the land is totally soaked right now the rivers were going to rise quickly. Here at Castleford Cut we are protected by the flood lock out onto the junction of the Rivers Aire and Calder. Last night we’d considered moving up to above Lemonroyd Lock where there is a nice mooring both we and Tilly like, but the rain this morning put us off. Currently we’re not in a rush so why get wet. Others including NB Nee Nah were off early, their aim to head to Leeds to await Woodnook Locks reopening at the end of the week. We decided to wait for the rain to stop, weather apps were checked, maybe early afternoon.

The Geraghty zoom this morning included conversations on fitted wardrobes and levelling up funding, diesel on boats in London, cat flaps and Masquerade by Kit Williams.

We pottered away the morning. Mick started to look at the river levels, hmmm, going up as we’d thought they would. There had been a notice this morning saying that Ledgard Flood Gates on the Calder Hebble were closed due to rising water levels. This is some way upstream but the waters would soon arrive here.

A walk to look at the level board at the flood lock. Waterproofs were donned and a slippy walk was made until we reached the tarmac and the road that weaves it’s way round to the A656. Down the footpath and back at the cut. Here we could see the normally amber light was now red and flashing at us. The flood lock closed. We crossed the lock gates and walked down to see how high the water was.

The level board has a very long red length, suggesting the river can rise very high. Today the river was sitting at about 2 inches into the red, we’d not be going anywhere today! At this end of the lock there are three lights each facing a different direction, all of these were amber, navigation possible to get off the river section and into the safety of the cut.

We crossed over the top gates, stood and wondered just why the flood lock here was such an odd shape. A little further on was a clue, a channel which is possibly used to fill the lock now but it showed obvious signs of it having been a lock in the past. Gate recesses and metal work from where gates used to be attached. A look at our Waterway Routes map confirmed that it had been a lock. I’d also spotted that there was another old lock shown on the map. Maybe the course of the cut had changed through the centuries, very likely.

On our return to Oleanna we took a slight detour and spotted the old lock which used to connect the River Aire below the weir to the cut. Had this been to bring goods up from the river to avoid navigational difficulties down stream? Time to do a bit of history hunting.

Old maps showed that there had been the smaller lock from the river that we’d seen today, but they also showed Castleford Cut. Hunting round I found a very good article on a Castleford History blog A lot to read, but worth it if you are interested. Here’s a quick precis.

**Waterway Routes showing two old locks**

In the C17th the textile industry was on the rise in the West Riding. Goods were imported and exported via York, packhorse boats sailing up and down the River Ouse which connected with packhorse routes across Yorkshire. In the 1620’s permission was sought in parliament to build short cuts to avoid weirs on the Rivers Aire and Calder. But opposition from York Corporation meant the bills were rejected. By 1698 royal ascent was received for the plans, meaning Castleford would become an important place during the canal boom years, the village growing into a town.

The original cut came off the river where we’d spotted the old lock. From here is continued in a straight line, through where the dry dock is and then down back onto the river behind The Griffin Pub on the big S bend, this meant bypassing the weir. Much of this old route has now been built over so no evidence is visible other than the dry dock. On the map below this route is shown by the blue line. This was possibly the shortest/cheapest route and opened in 1699. Castleford now became a key point for the collection of toles with wool, cloth, grain and coal passing through.

**1699 Blue, 1774 Purple, 1831 to Present day Orange**

The amount of traffic built up during the C18th, the capacity of the locks on the Aire and Calder were becoming an impediment. In 1774 an act of parliament was passed for a series of improvements. The awkward angle of Castleford Dam Lock was one problem the silt build up here another. So another cut was cut, shown above in purple. It came out from the current dry dock at 90 degrees then another turn to the east before dropping down to the river at Middle Lock, the ruins of which we’d spotted very close to our mooring. This all opened in 1775, but really wasn’t an ideal solution.

Trade was good, a weighing station was built in 1819. At this time Castleford also became a place where passengers would arrive by coach from Leeds and join boats heading for Goole and Hull. The Packet Boat steps are still visible below Castleford Bridge on the Aire. But in 1834 the opening of the Leeds Selby railway saw passengers move to the rails and then climb onboard boats in Selby to head down stream on the River Ouse. AS passengers reduced in number freight increased and further improvements were considered to the navigation.

**The ruins of Middle Lock back down onto the Aire**

In 1819 John Rennie surveyed the navigation and commented on it’s bad design and how the old lock was in a bad state of repair. George Leather did a survey in 1824 finding that depth of the cut was seriously bad, less than 5ft in places (not just a problem today!), the tight turns frequently caused damage to the boats. Where the lock met the river and the next half mile downstream was prone to silting. Various suggestions were made, Rennie added a suggestion of a new flood lock north of the current one. Then Thomas Telford was brought in, 1827, straightening of the River Calder was added into the mix and he agreed on much of what Leather had proposed. Works started in 1829 and by 1831 the north and south cuts had been joined and the navigation became what we have today stretching to Bulholme Lock where it re-joins the river, bypassing the weir, meanders and silt (route shown in orange).

The river levels have continued to rise through the afternoon and evening 1.66m by the time we went to bed. Tilly climbed trees, I knitted and Mick found things to do avoiding sorting out the remaining contents of The Shed.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 old locks found, 2 bacon butties, 1 abandoned pushchair, 2 inches in the red, 1 soggy day, 21:10 generator turned off, 1 still going at bed time, 1/3 sock knitted, 6 sausages and roasted veg,1 boat trapped, 2 flashing red lights.

No Stopping The Prime Van Or Us. 26th February

Blue Water Marina to Bramwith Junction, Stainforth and Keadby / New Junction Canals

During the week house reclaiming jobs have been completed, for this winter. All the hallway wallpaper has been patched up, some places better than others. Daily covid test have been taken as half of the Dark Horse Company tested positive the weekend after the show, thankfully everyone seems to have only had mild symptoms and thankfully I seem to have managed to avoid it.

We’ve made the sensible but hard decision to retire our boat Christmas tree. It has served us well for the last 7 Christmases. Coming into the house has confused it the last two years, sprouting and then getting chilly again even with us trying to move it gradually back to outside. It was also getting a touch too big for the boat and was pot bound. A space in the back garden was made ready with a touch of our own compost, which we hope will give it a much needed boost. If it survives I’ll buy it some solar powered lights so that it can be a Christmas tree all year round.

During the winter C&RT do maintenance on the canal system, taking advantage of the quieter time on the canals. For boaters wanting to cruise it means a touch more planning to avoid getting stuck. Our route south is currently blocked at Newark Town Lock which will be closed until 18th March. Then Thorne Lock was due to close between 1st and 31st March for lock gate replacement, the dates of this stoppage are under review as the gate manufacturing has been delayed. All the same should we stay put at Blue Water Marina for a few more weeks we could possibly end up only being able to cruise out towards Keadby, the furthest south we’d get being Torksey until Newark Town Lock reopens.

Add into the mix the fact that we are surrounded by rivers. The River Trent to our east, River Don the south, River Aire to the north and west and the River Ouse. The recent storms have had all the rivers go into flood. Flood gates and locks have been closed helping to protect properties. So understandably during the last week we’ve been watching the weather forecasts and river levels closely.

On Wednesday a C&RT notice came through saying that the Don Doors had reopened. The Doors are two guillotine gates that close at either side of the Don Aqueduct on the New Junction Canal, this is to stop flood water from the Don backing up along the New Junction Canal. Whilst they had been closed we’d tried contacting Staniland Marina to see if they could put us up for a little while, they are just above Thorne Lock. But there had been no space for us, so we’d been relieved to hear the New Junction Canal was open again.

With the weather looking promising for the weekend, our plan started to slot together. A phone call to Sarah at Blue Water Marina meant we had a new gas bottle delivered to Oleanna and our spare keys were returned too as nobody would be in the office when we arrived.

A hire car was picked up on Friday evening and we started to pack. The aim of this trip was to move as much back onto Oleanna as possible, leaving the minimum amount for our last trip when we’d be moving Tilly.

By 9am Saturday morning the car was very full. Tilly’s magic food bowl was set to spring open at evening Ding Ding time and we left a sulking feline basking in the sunshine.

They just don’t care about me anymore! She says it’s all about me, to make my life easier and less stressful. Well being left in a chilly house with Boggy Face Alan, Stumpy Betty and Boss Eyed Shoes glaring in at me is very stressful! Think I’d prefer a car journey.

It was sunny at the marina, the grass no longer squelching under foot, I just hoped Oleanna would be drier inside than last week. Thankfully she was. First job light the stove. Mick failed first time, kindling and matches just a little bit too damp still. The heating went on and the fire was re-laid and was soon blazing away.

Water tank was emptied, not much left, then refilled. We’d wanted to sterilize the tank but with the water pressure in the marina being a touch dodgy we decided that could wait. Fresh water in our tank would most probably be fine to drink, but after months I’d rather any possible bugs were killed, we’d brought a couple of bottles of drinking water with us anyway.

The back steps came out, the dinette opened up and all the things we’d brought down last were stowed giving us room to empty the car again. Then all that stuff had to be stowed away too. Lunch by the hatch, the weather was suitable for it to be open today.

The trip computer always gets sat up like this to stop Tilly from sitting on it

Mick moved the hire car out of the marina, just in case he got back to collect it after the gates had been closed. The covers were rolled and folded out of the way. The trip computer set to record our journey. We were ready!

Time to say goodbye to Blue Water Marina

Thankfully the wind was kind to us and allowed Mick to reverse us out of our mooring, gradually we turned and headed for the entrance. Two chaps came over to talk to Mick, saying they’d just had difficulty, two of them trying to open it, they’d given up and returned to the marina. We assumed they meant Princess Royal Swing Footbridge which can be awkward. Oh well, we’d see how we did with it.

Blue sky, a chilly breeze. Perfect winter cruising weather, we’d chosen our departure day well.

On arrival I opened the control panel where a new sheet of instructions has been added. I made sure I read it fully, turned the key and headed over to close the far barriers. One barrier clicked, the other despite a wiggle or three didn’t, Hmmm! Back over the other side I closed those, click, click and tried to set the bridge in motion. It wasn’t having it. I started to squeeze my way through to wiggle the far gate, but Mick came and did it for me. Still nothing! I’d nudged a near side gate which needed a wiggle now. Hooray the bridge swung!

Water bubbled below Thorne Lock, did the gates need replacing that much? It turned out that paddles were open at both ends of the lock letting water flow through to reduce the level above the lock after the recent flooding. Putting the key of power into the control panel immediately closed all the paddles and I had control.

Just above the lock is a swing bridge with manual barriers, which is tied into the lock mechanism. The barriers and bridge will only move once the top gates of the lock are open. Up came Oleanna in her first lock of the year, she smiled from horn to horn.

With the gates open I headed up to close the barriers to the road. With one closed I was coming back to close the second one when an Amazon Prime van sped up past me and onto the bridge. I shouted about the barrier, he stopped but stayed put on the bridge. It was me who would have to give way to him, no stopping Amazon Prime!

Clear of the stoppage when ever it happens

With him out of the way and barriers closed I lifted the handle on the bridge and pushed it open to let Oleanna out of the lock. All easy. We were now clear of the possible stoppage on Monday.

Staniland Marina with a sunk boat in front of the dry dock!

As we pootled away we wondered what the two chaps at the marina had had difficulty with. Two of them not able to open it? Maybe they had been referring to the bridge at the lock, perhaps they hadn’t lifted the handle, or maybe they hadn’t read the instructions and hadn’t opened the top gates before they tried the bridge. Oh well, we’d got through and that’s all that mattered, no stopping us!

We pootled along, under the M18 and past the scrubby bits where motorbikes must race each other. A breasted up pair came towards us, the canals up here so wide and deep there’d be no problem getting past each other. A batch of new houses have met up with the canal at Stainforth.

Time was getting on and the sun was getting low in the sky. We considered stopping short of Bramwith Swing Bridge but decided we’d prefer to have the view at Bramwith Junction. Through the swing bridge and on to the lock.

Bramwith lock feels so diddy, the extended lock (chained open and not often used) makes it seem so small. Time for a windlass and to manually lock Oleanna up.

Of course as soon as we reached the junction, where we wanted to moor the wind picked up, blowing Oleanna out from the bank, so it took us a while to moor her up as the sun set opposite us. The effort was worth it for the view.

More unpacking, the bed made up and a touch of encouragement to defrost the frozen bolognaise sauce we’d brought with us, we then settled down for the evening back on board Oleanna.

2 locks, 5.85 miles, 1 hire car, 1 left behind cat, 2 car loads to stow, 3 swing bridges, 4 held up, 1 big gulp, 1 chilly blue skied day, 1 boat gradually warming up, 2 happy boaters, 1 smiling Oleanna.

https://goo.gl/maps/P84faAG97Mqea7Dr7

Farewell HS1. Hello Hackney! Breach 55 17th July

St Pancras Cruising club to Marshgate Bridge 15, River Lee Navigation

Back in Yorkshire it looks like it’s been a lovely day and a good one for drone flying, Mark has been back to the breach site today. Thank you Mark for letting me use you photos.

The breach site has been without water for quite sometime now, there are plants growing on the silt on the southern side. The little boats are back that were used to get across the canal in the early days of the cofferdam, it also looks like the small tug is back on site.

In the above photo you can see that the access road has had a change in direction. It now leads across the eastern side of the cofferdam to what looks like a little pool of water.

This is where, when the cofferdam was built, they discovered a void behind the original piling on the south side. This had a temporary fix done to it to make the dam water tight. Now the top has a new concrete edge, a more substantial fix having been made.

Back on the north bank it looks like they have started to remove some of the aggregate that was being used as an access road. Parts of it have been dug out.

The piling now has a top edge, capped off to neaten it off. The concrete over the drain below has now been brought out to meet the level of the piling, neatening it all off. The surrounding bits of towpath have been filled in and levelled off.

Here’s hoping that when they raise the water levels everything remains water tight. Then the next stage will be removing the cofferdam and reopening the navigation.

Meanwhile back in London

We dropped into the Geraghty Saturday morning zoom for about ten minutes before paying for our mooring and making ready to push off. Graeme had his crew arrive, Roy and Jamie.

Mick walked down the gunnel of the boat in front of us and pulled our bow rope, pivoting Oleanna so that her nose poked out from the other boats. Terry from NB Flora Dora gave us a final push with a pole as Mick cranked the engine up, our extrication from the basin far easier than we’d thought it would be.

The sun was out, the sky blue, we were both lathered in sun cream, the world looked good. Once in the lock Mick got out his new propmate ready to clear the prop, making sure he put his hand through the string. There had been no point in doing so before we got out past all the weed in the basin.

NB Misty Blue soon followed us out and the two boats were ready to descend towards the Lee Navigation.

With plenty of crew our cruise would be plain sailing. We dropped down St Pancras Lock and said our goodbyes to the basin, thank you all for making us feel welcome and giving us somewhere to be whilst we headed to Scarborough, Huddersfield and attempted to sort the washing machine. But I have to say I won’t miss the trains early in the morning.

Last of the gas holders in their original place

A short distance on by Goodsway Bridge there is part of one of the gas holders left to mark where they had originally stood. Then on to Islington Tunnel. A lady moored on the offside just before the tunnel ask if we could lend a hand. Last night they had their rowing boat stolen, it was used to break in to a charity boat on the other side of the tunnel. If we could see it could we make sure it was tide up safe for her to collect later.

We had to wait for a trip boat to come through then the way was clear, NB Misty Blue following on behind. The rowing boat was tied up on the moorings so safe for now, maybe the lady would be able to get someone to tow it back through the tunnel for her.

A boat was just coming up City Road Lock, so we swapped over and waited for our lock partners to join us.

Lots to see. Interesting boats, graffiti all with the sun beating down on us.

A couple of volunteers were on duty at Old Ford Lock, they helped us down meaning we could stay on board and get ready to turn left onto Ducketts Cut, The Hertford Union Canal. With only three locks and 1.2 miles long the canal is easy, it cuts the corner on going down to Limehouse Basin and back up to the Olympic Park, which is 4.7 miles and 6 locks.

Misty Blue led the way, onto new waters for her and her crew.

More colourful boats, the Dad of the flamingo we’d seen up near Tring a few weekends ago and C&RT signs that are now totally unintelligible! We think the mooring sign used to say 4 hours, but we’re not sure!

Loads of spray cans, it must cost a small fortune

At Old Ford Lower Lock a chap was busy creating on the wall alongside. For as long as we can remember this wall has always had graffiti on it. Today it was getting a refreshed look. The face of a green man was appearing as the chap worked away. I was interested in how they work.

As a Scenic Artist I usually have reference to work from, a scale model, this chap kept looking at his phone. The chap said the wall was usually planned out before hand, but not always sometime it was just how the mood took him. He was however following whatever was on his phone quite religiously. I said I looked forward to seeing how it turned out when we return in a week or twos time. He said it was going to be a really good one, but that it would have been painted over by the time we come back.

Here is where the two boats parted company.

Graeme and crew on NB Misty Blue turned southwards with the aim of cruising round City Mill River to see the stadium, his crew being West Ham supporters.

We turned northwards up into Hackney Wick. Blimey the river was busy! Moo canoes filled the water, the towpath was chocka, bars and restaurants were filled to the gunnels, the whole area alive and buzzing.

The graffiti artist who has the ‘I ♥ Eggs’ as their tag has decorated one of the bridges. They have moved on from just their tag that appears near St Pancras, now there are fried eggs to accompany it.

We moored by the Copper Box for our first Christmas afloat in 2014, large areas of the land surrounding it have changed so much. It was what felt like desolate wasteland before, now it is filled with buildings.

We passed under the footbridge from Josh’s old junior school where we once moored on Lillian, this stretch now permanent moorings. Onwards northwards the only gaps in the moorings were too shallow, but we knew somewhere we’d be able to moor.

Up ahead tucked in behind a bush we could make out a riveted hull, then the red and green of the cabin side came into view, we slowed down and prepared to pull alongside NB Billy. An exchange of messages yesterday with Clare meant we’d be passing today, but they had decided to stay another night at Hackney Marshes and offered for us to moor alongside.

We’d only really just got settled when NB Misty Blue came past, sadly Old Ford Lock was closed on the Lee so their trip around the loop hadn’t been possible. As we are heading in the same direction our paths are likely to cross again in the next week or so.

Clare and Pete returned from a bike ride round the Marshes. We decided to do a do-si-do, for us to be on the inside and them on the outside. This would mean we were ready for them to push off in the morning and Tilly could have shore leave without passing over another boat. We swapped sides, possibly confusing a boat who thought it’s luck was in as both boats pulled out, but then snuck back into the same spot.

NB Billy should have been long gone, but they had had an incident with a large chunk of tree and their prop a week ago. A lot of damage was caused and necessitated being in dry dock for a day, their prop blades were distorted, it sheared off 8 bolts from the shaft coupling and dumped their propshaft into their bilge. But all is just about right now, just a bit of packing needed in Billy’s stern gland.

As we chatted Tilly came and went, her calculations went slight array when she attempted to leap from the stern which os moored out at quite a distance. A big splash, one soggy cat extricated herself from the cut onto the bank and ran inside, to be grabbed by me with a Tilly towel. I’d told her not to go off the back! It was all planned, a nice cooling dip!

Now we have yet another dirty towel needing washing with no washing machine!

8 locks, 5.83 miles, 1 tunnel, 0 mysterons, 2 lefts, 3 canals, 1 Goole escapee partner, 5 crew, 1 propmate, 1 hot day, 1 prearranged mooring, 1 Billy, 1 soggy moggy, 1 do-si-do, 1 noisy towpath, 1 bouncy castle, 54,674 cases!

https://goo.gl/maps/Ki8h4kCkCsDBScpy5

A Dry Bottom. 9th February

Taylor’s Boatyard Graving Lock

Today has been a busy chilly day.

At Taylor’s Boatyard you can hire out the Graving Lock for blacking, surveys and checking to see what is stopping your bow thruster from working. They do 6 day hires Saturday to Friday morning and on Fridays they tend to hire the Lock for a single day. We’d called them a few weeks ago to see if there was any chance of us having it for a day. Originally we’d tentatively booked it for last Friday, but because of the extended stoppage on the Llangollen and strong winds we moved it to today, which was just as well as the boat that had hired it that week over ran.

So this morning at 9am we were ready to move the short distance into the lock. First a charity boat needed to be raised, they’ve been busy blacking all week. This didn’t take too long and once they’d moored in the basin past us we pushed off and pulled into the dock. Pete and Yvette were on hand to lower Oleanna down onto the bearers and make sure we were safe in the dock.

Once in the lock, bow and stern lines were tied to railings holding her roughly in position above the bearers below the water. The lock gates were closed and then a paddle at the other end was lifted a bit. The lock drains out into the Dee branch, it is done slowly so as not to jostle the boats moored there and so that Oleanna could be gently positioned correctly. Pete then has to seal the lock gates, they leak a lot. So thick plastic sheeting is held by water pressure over the gates and extra bits and pieces are added in between so as to hold as much water back.

Gradually Oleanna lowered and soon we could see that she was resting on the supports, the water continued to empty. The whole process took half an hour. The lock empty of water, any leaking in through the gates drains away around a trough either side and the lock floor is slightly convex in shape to help shed the water. With a ladder tied to the bow we could come and go as we wished through a gate and the newly revealed steps.

The main purpose of hiring the lock was to see what if anything was caught around the bow thruster prop. Pete had a quick look down the tube, followed by myself and Mick.

None of us could see anything in there that shouldn’t have been. The grills came off, the prop turned. Mick removed the prop, checked it and fixed it back in position. Next he changed the blown fuse and went to the back of Oleanna to power it up. We’d checked with Finesse that it would be alright to run the bow thruster out of water, which it was. The prop worked fine, in both directions, in fact it was a bit of a shock when it changed direction and blasted droplets of canal water into my face.

So with nothing obstructing the prop and it working in mid air, Mick decided not to open up the workings. If it didn’t work in the water then it would be a warranty issue with Vetus.

Meanwhile I made the most of Oleanna being out of the water, there was the black band on the tunnel band still to go black. Once the red rubbing strake was sanded down I gave it a good wash. Whilst this was drying off I gave the rest of the water line a good clean down. As I worked along the boat I also cleaned off where there was the odd scrape along the blacking.

Masked off, the tunnel band took little time to paint with a careful coat of black multiforte.

The sun was out and dried off the hull quite quickly, so I then touched up any scrapes above and below the water line with some blacking. Ideally it would have been good to have stayed in the dry lock until tomorrow so that the paint could have cured more, but the noise of the water would have kept us awake. So we left it as long as possible before Pete returned to refill the lock.

Just where had they moved the outside to? I could see them out of the window but they had shrunk! They were way down there and I was way up here. I was very relieved when they came back inside and they were still normal sized.

We on the other hand were totally thrown by the boat not rocking under our feet! Being totally stationary in your home that normally moves is very disconcerting. Also doors and cupboards react differently as there is a slope through the boat from bow to stern (being lower). We found ourselves almost tripping up on nothingness.

Pete closed the paddle that had been open all the time we’d been in the lock, he then moved to near the gates. The leaked water started slowly to fill the chamber. With the tarpaulins removed more water was added, then the gate paddle was lifted and the level started to rise at a greater rate. It took around 14 minutes for the lock to level with the canal pound. Here is a link to a video I took of Oleanna coming up. I thought of it a bit late to sort out angling the camera to catch all of Oleanna, but I’m very glad I refrained from sitting it on the top stone step from the lock as this became submerged too.

Once we were level Mick powered up the bow thruster. From where I was stood it seemed like it worked, but apparently it stopped having blown a fuse again! No celebratory pizza for us tonight.

With the gates opened, I hopped back on board and we reversed out from the lock, headed back into the basin, winded and returned to where we’d left this morning. Tilly was ever so excited, now she’d be allowed out again. I made her stand on her shelf to see that we had brought back the one treed Chester outside that she hates so much. One day we’ll be in the countryside again.

1 graving lock, twice, 0.13 miles, 2 winds, 1 reverse, 30 minutes down, 1 spinning prop, 1 boat finally fully painted, 1 touched up hull, 3 hours, 14 minutes up, 1 more blown fuse, 1 outside with shrunk people and no water, 2 times bad boring Chester, 0 pizza, 2 disappointing portions of fish and chips, next time in Scarborough we must remind ourselves that fish and chips can be jolly good, 1 year since breaking my ankle.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna