Saturday 23rd August
– Paddys Wood to Wheelock and Visit to Sandbach
We decided to
move down the canal about a mile and a half to fill up with water at Wheelock
services and then moor on the visitor moorings and walk to Sandbach.
It had been raining earlier but had eased
off, so we set out along the canal, we pulled in just before the services and I
walked down to see if there was a space for us as it looked busy.
There was a sp
ace, just, one boat was getting
water, the other two had just moored up in the water point to wait for the rain
to go over.
so Kev brought the boat down
and then the heavens opened and we both got drenched. Moored up, got water and in between the heavy
showers, we got to the visitor moorings and tied up there.
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| Sandbach |
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| Sandbach |
After a while, the rain stopped and the sun came out, so we headed off
up the road to Sandbach. It is about a
mile and a half and an easy walk. Got to
Sandbach in the sunshine and it was dry all afternoon. Sandbach is a really nice market town with a
nice cobbled square. On Saturdays the
market hall is open which has lots of stalls selling all sorts of things. There is a also a lovely deli shop on the
square and we bought several things from there.
Had a walk around, then made our way back to the boat.
Chilled out for a bit, then had a walk along the canal and up the locks
to see where we will be going tomorrow.
When we got to lock 64, there was a couple there with three cavalier
dogs, the couple were very disdraught as they had come into the far side paired
lock and as they were going down, the boat had got caught on the sill and they
just managed to get the dogs off and themselves before the front end went under
the water, the worst thing was they had borrowed the boat from a friend. The Canal and River Trust (CRT) had come out
and had a look, but told them they couldn’t do anything as they were paired
locks and so it wasn’t blocking the canal and they just gave them some
emergency numbers to ring and went away.
The couple tried all the numbers and it was just answer phones, it was
awful as they were just left with no help and had no idea what to do, they
also couldn’t get hold of the friend whose boat it was. They live about an hours drive away, so we
waited with them until their daughter arrived, then we walked back to our boat,
made some coffee in a flask and got some water for the dogs and walked back up
to where they were. About three hours
had gone past by this time and CRT eventually came back and tied the boat up and
put barriers around, why they didn’t do it when they first turned up escapes
us, but they still didn’t give the couple any advice as to what to do. Once CRT had gone, the couple and their
daughter left to go back home and see their friend and sort out phoning the
insurance company. We felt really sorry
for them as they were so upset about it all and no one seemed to help
them.
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| Boat caught on cill in lock |
You need to be so careful in locks as this is what can happen if you
take your eye off the ball or don’t take things steady. It was very scarey seeing that boat in the lock like that, really brings it home what dangerous places locks are! We will be extra careful tomorrow, although
we are going up, so it is much safer as there is no cill to get caught on.
Sunday 24th August
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| Working up the Wheelock Flight |
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| Stuck in the pound! |
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| At the top of the Wheelock Flight |
When we got up, the sun was shining today and as we wanted to get up
through the locks so we are moored up by lunchtime to watch the Grand Prix, we
set off at 8.15am!! Most of these locks
are paired locks, single locks side by side but not all of them are working, so
through the first lock we went, there were two boats behind us, but nothing
coming down. We got up to the lock where
the boat got caught on the cill yesterday and River, Canal Rescue (RCR) were
there and they had refloated the boat and were going to get it out the lock and
moor it up on the side, then the insurance company would take over, they said
there wasn’t a lot of damage, so that was lucky. I went onto the next lock to get it set, the
pound between the locks was really down and Kev got stuck in the middle, so I
had to open all the paddles and let some water through, eventually the pound
filled up enough and Kev got into the lock, our first experience of low water
in the pounds.
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| Leaving Hassall Green Locks |
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| Coming into Hassall Green Locks |
The chap on the boat behind us was really helpful and kept coming up
and giving us a hand, some people are so nice.
Went through the rest of the locks with no hitches and moored at Hassall
Green. We only travelled two miles today, but we did do 10 locks!! Staying here tonight and maybe tomorrow if the forecast is correct and its raining, we shall see!
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| Moored at Hassall Green |
Those locks are part of the 22 known as 'Heartbreak Hill' – seems very appropriate! That's where found 3 dry pounds and John couldn't let enough down to put them in water so we rang CRT and then had to wait for a couple of hours while CRT let water down from above. Glad you had some nice people who helped, poor old John had a grumpy Yorkshireman who accused us of 'doing it deliberately' to empty the pound where he was moored. He came up to the lock we were waiting in and I thought he might hit John, but another boater came up and told him he was "a complete pillock" and not to be so stupid, as it wasn't anyone's fault.
ReplyDeleteActually, it may have been partly CRT's fault, due to lack of maintenance. The lock we were waiting in was leaking so badly that it was contributing to emptying the pound that the northerner's boat was moored in.