Sunday, 10 May 2009

The week of the weedhatch


Shush & Bendigedig moored for the night.



Working through the locks.

The views up here are just stunning, looking towards the summit.


Looking back from the summit.


Shush & Bendigedig moored below West Summit lock.


Ben having a rest.



The girls working us down from the summit.




Here's a novelty our first guillotine lock at Todmordon.



What a week, the BW guys met us on Monday morning just after eight at Ducie St. Being Manchester it was raining, but we started up the nineteen locks, one of them in front and the other with a lady single hander behind us. I have never been down the weed hatch on this boat since new, ( for the uninitiated, the weed hatch is a shaft of steel with a lid, over the prop, enabling you to get at anything fowling the prop without having to go over the side into the canal), but we were only a couple of locks up when every thing came to a halt, the first time it was a pair of trousers, next it was a sweat shirt, then a canvas sports bag, then plastic bags,then part of a tent, the bit with a 3ft plastic zip on, and a couple more bits over the day, at the end of the day I nearly had a wardrobe of clothes and a bag to carry them in, Eric had a pile of plastic rope and bags as well. When we finally moored up at Chadderton we were worn out.
Next day we headed up to Slattocks for water and a night stop. Weds and Thurs found us working our way up to the summit, where our crossing was booked for Friday morning. After crossing into Yorkshire we started making our way down ending up in Todmorden on Friday eve. We spent Sat moored in the town to do some shopping, then moved on Sun am to our present spot in the country in order to watch the Grand Prix.
We have had rain most days this week, but also some sun, Since Monday we have covered 20 miles and worked through 65 locks, we still have 48 miles and 58 locks to Leeds
That's all, see you next week.



















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