Here I am Rune
Distance 5.9 miles
Total 1163 Locks 68 Tunnels
Running total mileage 1687.2 miles
Didn’t get quite as far as I’d hoped today, got as far as
Tarleton Lock but then remained there instead of heading back towards Spark
Bridge. Part of the problem was the time it took us to get through Fearns Swing
Bridge (Bridge 9). When we arrived there was a boat coming from the opposite
direction already preparing the bridge to come through. We
waited but he got in a bit of a tangle due to the crosswind (bloody wind
again!) and ended out diagonally across the canal and aground at both front and
back. After about 20 minutes to half an hour he managed to get himself sorted
out and came through the bridge, by this time we’d taken over the bridge
operation so that his shore crew could help out on the boat. We then passed
through the bridge but going to the very short lock moorings to pick the crew
up we got blown to the side. Not too much of a problem, pushed the bows out and
then gave it forwards thrust and started to move out nicely. Where it went
wrong was at the end of the lock moorings it became very shallow with a
concrete base to the canal, which we then ran aground on. Because I’d been
giving it quite a lot of power to get some forward momentum we were fairly
firmly aground. A lot of rope pulling got us free but the problem remained as
to how to get past the shallows at the end of the lock mooring since they
weren’t long enough for our boat and as soon as I pushed the bows out and put
it in forward drive by the time the stern reached the end of the moorings it
ran aground. Eventually succeeded by pushing the bows with the bargepole from
the bank until the boat was almost diagonal across the canal then driving it
hard forward, lots of swearing but eventually on our way! When we eventually
reached Tarleton we didn’t feel like making the effort to head back again,
although we turned the boat around in what has probably been the tightest
winding hole that I have yet used!
Tomorrow heading back down towards the Leeds Liverpool main
line and on to Wigan.
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| Tarleton Lock...... |
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| .......the end of the Rufford Branch |
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