From john@johnpb.demon.co.uk Sat May 1 11:26:44 1999 Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 23:15:36 +0100 From: John Bennett Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: canals@blacksheep.org Subject: K&A adventures Part II (long) Apologies again for the message length and for posting it "blind" to the list, which I can't receive at the moment (due to the inadequacy of my GSM link). I've now reached Pewsey Wharf (Wiltshire) on my way back to Bradford on Avon. Earlier today I visited the Crofton pumping station in full steam and the scenery around the summit of the canal is fantastic (on a hot, sunny day anyway!). I always find it a bit of a relief to get back onto canals from a river, but it certainly is real contrast here to the busy and magnificent Thames and especially Henley where I was only a week ago. I really wish I'd been able to spend more time cruising on the Thames. Boat movements on the K&A are steady at about half a dozen a day in either direction!! It's not a "use it or lose it" canal I know, thanks to the lottery, but why are so few people cruising this magnificent waterway? I am at present moored next door but one to a Springer by the name of "Wa' Na' Nee' Che" (I'm sure that name rings a bell somewhere:-). I haven't seen the owners and it looks like they've left her here for while! But it's all downhill now (well Caen Hill anyway;-) and I should be home in a few days. The sorry tale of the sailing boat "Talitha" is worth recounting here. She had come all the way from Pembroke via the Thames on BW's assurance that they could traverse the K&A all the way through to Bristol. I first met up with her at Newbury, where she'd been marooned for 5 days having broken her rudder on a submerged rock just before Newbury Lock. Her draught is something under 3 feet and she has twin "bilge keels". This information was given to BW long before the trip and they said she would be ok to use the canal (which they currently quote has a 3 foot minimum draught throughout). Her rudder had been repaired and I left Newbury with "Talitha" on Thusday morning. She got stuck at Kintbury and was pulled off by the trip horse-boat crew (they didn't use the horse for some reason!). The problems worsened as we got closer to Hungerford. I was able to pull her free by towing, but as we approached Hungerford Town Bridge she got well and truly stuck fast. My SR2 would do no more than belch out vast quantities of black smoke and they were obviously going nowhere. So what do we do now? The "Rose of Hungerford" (K&A Trust wide beam trip boat) is about to leave Hungerford Wharf and "Talitha" is stuck fast just the other side of the bridge, right in her way! Well on a canal with virtually no boat movements the only thing you can do is pray or ring up BW in the hope that they will offer to sort it out sometime next week. However on that day, out of the blue and at exactly the right moment, we saw a tug coming towards us. A miracle surely, but no, it wasn't Guy Morgan with "Thorn"!;-) That narrowboat tug was actually the "Christopher James" (b.1947 and beautifully restored almost from scratch by Andrew Hall in her original "Leonard Leigh Ltd" livery). I'd seen her at the traditional boat rally in Henley the weekend before and they were now holidaying. She used to tow coal-laden barges on the Wyrley & Essington, so a sailing boat stuck in the canal should be no problem at all - or so we thought. The pounds here are really quite low and we were told that no proper dredging has been done since the section of canal was re-opened some 15 years ago. I opened all the paddles from the Town lock above the wharf to let some more water down (which seriously upset some boat owners moored above the lock) and it took about an hour with the tug and teams of us on ropes to eventually pull the boat through thr bridge and onto the wharf mooring - much to the relief of the trip boat operators who left nearly an hour late, but we think the passengers actually enjoyed the spectacle. Next morning after several phone calls to BW and a visit from their "man" they said it would be ok for her to proceed. So off we went in convoy but within 100 yards she was stuck fast again. More phone calls and 2 BW men appeared fairly soon but didn't really seem to be able to do much. I managed to pull her off backwards and returned her to the wharf mooring. I had to leave her there yesterday and have just heard that BW are sending help to assist her passage next Tuesday. The pounds around the 2 Froxfield locks were also seriously low (over a foot!) and I fear they may have more problems ahead. What, I wonder, is BW's liability, having given the go-ahaed for the trip, if it were to turn out she has to craned out? On the subject of Tugs, I shared locks with "DMS Dignity" yesterday, on her way to pick up an empty barge from Great Bedwyn. "Dignity" is a modern Delta Marine Services narrow canal tug that has been depositing empty barges at Kintbury in readiness for the fibre-optic towpath cable laying work that commences from Kintbury next Monday. I saw her passing through Hungerford, taking 2 barges up the canal, pushing one and pulling the other, both apparently tied very tight to the tug. Whether this system would work with loaded barges I don't know and was this method ever used in traditional canal carrying? She will then be working full time transporting cables and plant etc along the canal in these barges. Despite the disruption that this work will undoubtedly cause it's good to see the canal being used like this by the contractors and I especially approve of the decision to employ the old traditional working boat "Lupin", even though her use is to be as a floating "tea hut"! Cheers John -- John Bennett nb "Jake B" Moored at Pewsey Wharf Kennet & Avon Navigation