From terry@talwaldron.freeserve.co.uk Fri Apr 30 22:45:17 1999 Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 20:50:15 -0000 From: Terry Waldron Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: mailing list Subject: Trip Report Christmas 98 and New year 99 Part 5 (Final Part) [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] 6 Jan Did not get up until 0900, the latest lie in of the trip, must have got led astray last night!!! Had breakfast and away by 1000. Raining in spells most of the day, quite heavy in spells. When we passed Salford Quays all the workmen were sheltering under the flyover. Did an hour each steering and an hour drying out until we got to ye Olde No 3 where we stopped for water, went for a couple of pints of Caffreys and I was the only one in the pub other than the staff. The pub has a wide beam trip boat on which they serve sunday lunches whilst cruising, it appears to be very popular all year round. Finally moored at Lymm and went shopping to top up provisions, nice bakers, nice butchers and nice veg shop. Got chips from the chip shop about 50 yards from the boat. Had a nice quiet evening onboard. 13 Miles 0 locks 7 Jan Had a look at Lymm Thursday market before we left, not many stalls, good for topping up on cleaning gear, plenty of fresh veg and cheese, also a stall selling good quality, reasonably cheap, towels and bedding. Away at 0930, sun trying to break through the grey overcast sky. Just through the first bridge a kingfisher was sat on a branch, the closest I have been to one and he sat there as we went past, took photo but it has not come out very well. Raining quite hard by the time we got to Runcorn Branch, decided to go up the branch. Sue took over steering just into the branch. Just before the pub beside the canal she picked up a mass of plastic around the prop, lost power and steerage and ended up in the bank. Up weedhatch and had to cut the bag off, masses of it so decided to turn in the width of the canal and not to go onto the winding hole. Picked up more plastic on the way back, hand down weedhatch again before we got to the end of the branch. Large refuse bin in the canal beside bridge 69. The canal and banks littered with rubbish on both sides. Got to preston Brook Tunnel and had to wait 1/2 hour before we could go through. Moored just before Br213. 15 miles 1 lock 1 tunnel 8 Jan Up fairly early, quite a nice day, finally moored Acton Bridge, took diesel and got all our bags to the car. A large crane sat in the car park lifting out all of the Ownerships boats, by the time we had filled our car they were ready for Stella. Stood and watched Stella being craned out for Annual Bottom Blacking, got some fairly good photos. Drove to Goole and then to Sykehouse Bridge on the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Canal to meet up with our friends who are residential/long term cruising and have been in Goole Boathouse marina most of the winter. 2 miles by boat 100 miles by car 9 Jan Took a leisurely criuse to Barnaby Dunn our friends in their boat and me on another boat giving 'confidence' and instruction to a lady liveaboard who has lost her husband and who did all the steering. The locks and bridges in this area are all electrical/hydraulic operated and much larger than most other canals as this is a commercial waterway. Sykehouse Lock has a bridge across it which has to be manually moved before you can set the lock. The bridge is a bit slack on its pivot and I let it drop too soon and got it stuck part way across, Sue came to my rescue and rocked it so I could get it back in place. 5 miles 6 lift/swing bridges 1 lock 10 Jan While doing daily checks on Dolphin I noticed one of the injectors leaking, cleaned up and tried to tighten down on the injector. The engine is a petter and apparantly the flange under the injector had been reseated whilst the engine was being maintained recently but had obviously not been seated properly. Started engine and noticed a water leak from one of the cooling pipes. Decided to shut down engine and breast up with the other boat for our return to Sykehouse bridge and it could then be stripped down and properly seated. Had lunch and packed the car for the 6 hour journey home and work tomorrow. 5 miles 6 lift/swing bridges 1 lock by boat 325 miles by car.