From s.kirby@dial.pipex.com Sat May 1 11:20:42 1999 Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 14:55:52 -0000 From: Stewart Kirby Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: Canals Subject: Sunday Cruise [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] I thought I might post something about boating for a change. We took Owlet out for the day yesterday ( Sunday ) and heading west up the Calder & Hebble for Shepley Bridge Marina. The sun was so warm that both Jo and I were wearing tee-shirts and I had to slap some sunblock on my face. We usually find we are the only boat on the move since we got our boat to it's current mooringa in November 97 but as I spun the boat round to go through the newly installed gates on the Thornhill Double Locks Jo signalled that someone was coming down!!! It was a family on Worcester, a hire boat from Shire Cruisers at Sowerby Bridge, strangely enough we hired her last summer. Apparently they regularly hire at this time of year and are almost always blessed with decent weather. Well BW have done a wonderful job of replacing the lock gates, they have not been tempted to replace the Calder & Hebble Handspike gear with what most of you wqould consider "normal" gear and the top gates on the upper lock can be moved with a gentle push. Maybe there is something to this "balance beam" stuff. We were poodling up the cut a half mile or so further on when we picked up something on the prop. We have a prop-protector fitted and for the first time it had failed to clear the obstruction. I idled into the side and went into the weedhatch where the tempurature of the water gave me a real shock, it was so cold I could only keep my arm down there for a few seconds at a time. I found a full size plastic sack around the prop which came off very easily. Popped it into the rubbish bin so no-one else picked it up. An uneventful trip after that until we passed through Greenwood Lock and found Greenwood Cut and the river section beyond Greenwood Flood Gate covered in oil or diesel or petrol and the ducks that we saw we covered with it too. There was a very strong smell and I though twice about lighting a cigarette. Any idea who I can report this too as I would guess the wildlife is sufferring? Shepley Bridge should have had a new bridge back in November but they are still doing it , the contractors made access from the landing stage to the lock really difficult and we might have turned back if we had not seen Worcester and realsied they had passed through the lock. Had to scramble underneath scaffolding and over piles of rubbish. Complaint will be going to BW. Spent an hour in the pub, or rather outside as it was Mothers Day and the pub would not let us bring the dog in as people were eating in what is normally the bar area. On the way back we were speculating where the plastic sack we had picked up and the plastic bags that festooned every tree around the Greenwood Cut and river section had come from when we noticed a building and a yard full of bales of plastic and rags. I suppose a high wind or some stupid hadling has resulted in lots of plastic bags being blown out of the yard. Just as we were doing this we picked up sack number two and as we were approaching the spot where we picked up sack number one, near the Perseverence pub, we picked up sack number three. This one did not seem to be putting a strain on the engine so I left it there while we crept up to the mooring point above Thornhill Double locks where I removed. At this point the dog fell in the cut. For some reason, maybe the shock of the cold water he didnt start to swim so I had to haul him out, I'm really starting to think about getting him a life jacket. Anyway, a most enjoyable day even though we had one or two little things to deal with but I must find someone to report the pollution to. Stewart