From: steh Date: Tue, 1 Apr 97 10:16:25 BST To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: Pre Easter cruise - Part one (longish) Cruising The Monmouth & Brecon or Down the weed hatch several times a day We, that is myself, my wife Heather and her parents, had a short cruise on the Monmouth & Brecon just before Easter. We hired 'Cilgerran Castle' from Castle Narrowboats of Gilwern. We arrived at the boatyard at 9:00 am on Sunday 23 March. As the boat was not out the previous day the boatyard kindly agreed that we could have the boat at 9:30 instead of the usual 3:00pm. After the usual instructions on the engine, heating system etc we set off just after 9:30. We headed up toward Brecon. David of Castle Narrowboats said it was 2 days up and 2 days back, but we had already decided to make early starts each morning and get up and back in three days and then explore the lower part of the canal on our last day. The weather was dry but fairly overcast and windy, an unwelcome change from the previous week which had been bright and sunny. We made reasonable progress through the day though finding somewhere to moor for lunch was a problem. The M&B has sloping sides to the banks making mooring in close quite difficult. The flight of five locks at Llangyndir was reached just after lunch. The BW instructions are to leave these locks empty with the bottom gates open. This slows down progress quite a bit. The water level in the pound between L66 and L67 was so low that we grounded in the middle of the cut. Luckily Heather was on the towpath so she filled and emptied the upper lock twice to give us some more water. The pound between L67 and L68 has a side pond which provided the water we needed. This stretch is very shallow and BW have done extensive tree felling and loping along the banks during the winter. Much of the debris from this work has fallen in the water making progress quite slow. I had to go down the weed hatch to clear a bungie tie of the type used on car roof racks. We negotiated the very low Ashford tunnel in late afternoon and decided to stop for the night at Talybont. We ate in 'The Star' where there are photos on the wall of the mess caused by the canal breach in Dec 1994. We were up and away by 7:30 the next morning. It was begining to drizzle with rain and the wind was even colder and stronger. Bridges 148-150 are lift bridges and I was the one who had to wind them up and down and jog along the towpath in the cold and rain. We stopped at Pencelli for breakfast, during which the weather improved. We set off on the last leg up to Brecon. The canal traffic had been very light. We had met less than half a dozen boats on the move in one and a half days. We knew BW had been working all winter on repairs to the Brynich aquaduct. The water had only gone back in the day before. There was still much more work to be done on the banks, but the way was clear and we passed over with cheery waves and comments from the workmen. Above the top gate of Brynich lock a winters worth of debris had accumulated, branches, twigs, polythene bags and plastic building materials. We pushed through this and reached Brecon by lunchtime. There were no other boats and as we had not met any coming down and water had been back in the aquaduct less than a day we were probably the first boat to Brecon this year. A light lunch aboard and then a stroll around Brecon and replenish supplies. Considerable building work is being done on the basin at Brecon. Canalside is a smart looking new theatre and new moorings. There is now an extra bridge No. 167 and a second basin. Is this the original bridge reopened, or a modern tasteful reconstruction? We had hoped to take on water here but couldnt find the tap amidst the building works. Remembering a tap by Brynich lock, we set off on the return journey. On reaching the lock we found the tap adjacent to the top gate on the non towpath side. There was no canal traffic about so we moored with our nose against the lock gate and started taking on water while the lock filled. When we were ready to go the engine stalled every time we engaged the prop. A look in the weed hatch showed a great mass of thick industrial grade polythene of the type used to wrap palleted goods. Twenty minutes or more in the icy water with a scissors (the only tool available) was having little effect. I was about to see if the workmen on the aquaduct had something more suitable when it suddenly gave way. We carried on fairly uneventfully until just before Pencelli where we moored up and had supper on board. The day had worn us out and we were in bed by 9:30 ! -- From: steh Date: Tue, 1 Apr 97 10:18:00 BST To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: Pre Easter cruise Part two (longish) An early start again on Tuesday to Talybont where we breakfasted and topped up with water. Whilst moored a hire boat came past with what seemed like a very novice helmsman. He badly judged the corner then nearly reversed over the weir. We were to meet this same boat later in the day. A pleasant mornings cruising with the weather slightly improved took us down to the locks. Coming up was Brecon Castle, an electric boat from Castle Narrowboats. Going down was the boat that past us at breakfast. This was obviously their first encounter with a lock and there seemed to be too many captains and not enough crew. We decided to wait and let Brecon Castle come right up the flight before we went down. We spent some time chatting to Brecon's crew who were a young family on their first canal trip and loving it. Whilst we were talking the other boat was stuck diagonally across the top of lock 67. We were tempted to help but more advice seemed to be the last thing they wanted. I took the opportunity to clear the weed hatch, again ! We went down the first three locks easily, but when we reached L65 we again had to wait for the other boat. There was a BW man here so I asked why the locks had to be left empty even when locking up. He said it was for safety reasons in case someone falls in. It seems to me that it would be easier to get out of a full lock than an empty one. The other boat moored just below Br132 and we didnt see them again. The weather had improved by this time and we made steady progress down to Gilwern. Bridge 103 in Gilwern took us a little by suprise. It is _very_ low, with only 3-4 inch clearance on one side. It is not helped by being on a bend as the steerer has to duck down behind the cabin or risk decapitation. We cruised on to Govilon where we moored for the night. We had our evening meal in the Bridgend Inn after being told at The Lion that they dont serve meals on Tuesdays. The next morning I topped up the water whilst the rest of the crew were getting up and we were again away by 7:30. This was our last day and we had to calculate how far we could go down towards Pontypool before turning around to be within an hour or so of the boatyard for our last night. A check with Nicholson's and 'The Brecon & Abergavenny Canal' by John Norris showed us several winding points in the Goytre area so we decided to try to make it to there. Progress in this part of the canal was very slow. It is shallow and muddy. I think I had to clear the weed hatch four or five times, mostly sticks, twigs and leaves but also plastic carrier bags and polythene fertiliser sacks. At one point we encountered a BW workmen's boat moored right across the cut. We approched slowly thinking maybe the canal is closed for maintenance, but two workers appeared and moved the boat. It seems they were using it as a bridge while they worked on both sides. This lower part of the canal is very different from the upper section. We were led to expect it to be less attractive, but in fact we felt it was equally so. The wind was blowing very strongly making negotiating some of the sharp bends quite difficult, but we reached Goytre at about noon. We had planned to wind at the wharf, but the hire company's boats were everywhere making navigating straight through awkward, and winding impossible. We went on to the small winding hole below bridge 74. We came back up to Goytre and stopped for lunch onboard. The trip back up to Llanfoist was windy and required several more stops to clear the weed hatch. We moored overnight in the concrete lined section betwwen Tods bridge and Br96. The next morning we had breakfast and headed back to the boatyard. The low bridge at Gilwern and the Z bend under the heads of the valleys road provided a last test of our navigational skills and we reluctantly handed th boat back on time. As its not connected to the rest of the network the M&B may get ignored by some, but we thoroughly enjoyed our four days. -- I hate junk mail so please remove | If you think education the underscores to get my real | is expensive, mail id | try ignorance. E-Mail: s_t_e_h@mail.nsw.ac.uk |