Barrowford

Here I am Rune

Distance 5 miles

Total 1237 Locks 69 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1749.4miles

We have now reached the summit of the canal, all the way from here to Leeds will be downhill; according to records we are currently 487 feet above sea level here (a long way up from Liverpool!). Today’s trip has been OK although it is still pretty chilly here for the middle of June. The distance travelled was fairly short, only 5 miles but with 7 Locks to do as well it made a day of it. We stopped off in Nelson to get the weekend shopping in since we are now heading out towards the moorland and all we are likely to get between here and Skipton will just be village stores, OK for milk and the like but not much good for a weekend joint.

The only slight mishap today was on the third lock coming up, under the M65 motorway. Whilst the crew set the lock I drifted around in the pound waiting for it to empty. Whilst waiting crew also went onto the next lock to set that one. Once the lock above me was empty and I could see daylight through the gates I moved into the bridge hole immediately below  the lock to wait for the gates to be opened. What I didn’t realise was that the lock by-weir drained into the bridge hole and whilst I’m waiting water began to gush through since the lock above this one was being drained and the excess water was coming around the by-weir. Not too serious at first but then it became a real torrent that was pinning the boat against the canal side and the water was washing up the side of the boat. You can gauge how much force the water had since when I opened the lock gate to try to move into the lock, even with quite a lot of throttle, the boat was reluctant to move forward. Fortunately the engine exhaust was on the opposite side of the boat or I could have ended out with water up the exhaust pipe. Did eventually get it into the lock and out of the by-weir flow, but it was a bit of a struggle.

Tomorrow we may stay put for another day to go and visit the Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford containing some of the history of the Pendle Witches among other things.