From mwickett@decisionsolutions.com Mon May 3 21:41:53 1999 Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 11:27:46 +0100 From: Mark Wickett Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: Canals Mailing List Subject: TRIP REPORT: Out and About on the Cut: Day 7 [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] OUT AND ABOUT ON THE CUT - day 7 Recap: Our trip to Barnoldswick and back has been hard work - but *very* relaxing (and we've nearly run out of wine!) Saturday: We were both irritated by the time dawn arrived. The pleasant sound of a church bell had turned into a noisy nightmare: every fifteen minutes throughout the night, the bells had announced the time and we regretted the decision to moor adjacent to the church. Catherine said she had awoken in the night in the middle of a dream where she was on Kildwick Parish Council, getting annoyed with some woman who said that the bells had been there for hundreds of years and they shouldn't be silenced. I guess that's not far from the truth! Leaving our annoyances at Kildwick, we were quickly on our way in the now glorious sunshine, arriving at Silsden to await the arrival of our next crew. We enquired at the boat yard about their facilities to be told bluntly they didn't really have any - but if we wanted a Elsan disposal, there was an manhole cover in the car park we could use. We declined and sat back on the boat, reading the newspapers about the newly signed Northern Ireland agreement, only disturbed by a particularly selfish boat that roared past us pulling out the front mooring pin. Quick action by Catherine ensured we didn't drift too far! Soon after the appointed time, Jonathan and Leslie arrived for their day out on our boat. Jonathan proved himself immediately adept at the tiller, whilst Leslie and I swung the bridges all the way down towards Bingley. The sun shone, punctuated by the occasional shower of rain, hail and snow, but these were quickly forgotten by the warming rays of the morning sun. Lunchtime saw us arrive at the top of Bingley ready for our descent from Skipton Pool and after emptying the Elsan (in a proper disposal point), filling up with water and resisting the temptation of the cafe, we were off - sharing our descent with another boat out for their first trip down the flight. The rapid approach of a snow storm did little to dampen the enthusiasm and inquisitiveness of the watching crowds and our boats were accompanied all the way down to the visitor moorings on the realigned canal below the Three Rise. We saw a polythene bag today - but this particular Safeway carrier bag contained our food and a bottle of Chianti for the evening meal. On the outskirts of Bingley we were pelted with stones from the friendly neighbourhood kids who did their best to hide in the leafless trees - but we could see clearly where they were and their stones missed both us and the boat. This was our first and last "problem" on our trip out - everyone else we encountered was reticent at best, inquisitive at worst. Soon we arrived at Hirst lock and its adjacent swing bridge and this was to be a sticky situation. The lock took longer than expected to fill, and Catherine waited patiently between the bridge and the lock gates. Unfortunately, the flow of the water over the overflow was sufficient to pull the boat down and it scraped on the protective wooden beam, taking yet more paint off the stern - and on the other side to where our friendly hirers had hit us. Reversing wasn't an option as the swing bridge was now closed and being used by traffic so we had to stick it out. We could always touch the paint up later... Finally, we arrived back at Saltaire - our stop for our first and last nights. The day had been glorious for the most part despite a brisk breeze to take the edge off the warmth of the sun and now we were moored below a star-filled sky in the silhouette of Salts Mill. We revisited Fanny's Ale House and found their draught cider as good as their ale (the one we tried was something from Westons(?) but they had a couple more) - but it was a Saturday night and it was extremely busy! We bade farewell to our fourth crew of the trip at Saltaire station and we fell asleep in the comfort of our bed shortly afterwards, the first feelings of the end of our holiday stirring... Tomorrow: Entertaining the gongoozlers. Mark Wickett n.b. Ruddy Duck