Smoke signals

 

Deep locks heading for Middlewich

The Captain muttered about the fridge’s light flashing as he made tea but I think he just kept the door open too long as it stopped when I looked at it. Certainly the batteries were coping. Eventually we got moving and ambled through pleasant surroundings until after the first lock where the road closed in and roared alongside.

Locking is harder with the road so close as Lottie has to be kept on a lead. Just as I wanted to move to the other end of the lock Lottie lay down so I put the extending lead on the ground and left her lying there. As the locks are long enough to take a 72 foot boat I moved that far from her. I was busy raising the first paddle when Lottie picked up the lead by its large plastic handle and trotted up to me. Clearly she has found a way to move without the lead slowing her down. 

When the Captain walked forward to the next lock a hire boat crew raised the paddles to empty it even though he called “boat coming,” to them. They turned their backs on him as he jogged the last few metres to the lock. What can you do? Even though the water had been at our level it soon became theirs. I arrived and moored at the lock bollards but their boat wasn’t in sight so why had they been in such a hurry?

The boat eventually arrived with a cruiser immediately behind it. The captain leaned on the beam swapping stories with the Skipper of the cruiser and let the pirate crew get on with the work even though they had trouble turning one paddle. I guess they were in a hurry to leave the noisy road behind.The sky blackened as we entered Kings lock. As it was followed by three more I expected to get wet before we moored but a lady wielding a windlass came round the corner as the Captain was descending the first of the three.

“We’re coming up the middle lock,” she gasped.

 canal-side meadows

“I’ll leave these gates open then,” I replied noticing Lottie exploring far below the lock on the off side. I was happy with this as it was far from the busy path on my side of the lock. Did she realise that was the only place she would be allowed to roam off the lead. 

"I will too.” She smiled and disappeared back round the sharp bend to the lower lock. Now that’s sensible boating. The two boats passed in the middle of the pound and each entered the open lock ahead of them. Everybody gained. A boat was rising in the last lock so once again the two boats passed in the pound. 

Locking by pretty gardens

The rain started as the Captain sailed out of the lock but the mooring before Middlewich Big lock was just around the next corner. I jogged to the bridge where the Captain threw me my waterproof but we had moored before the deluge began. When the rain abated he set off to the local shops returning with our lunch and lots of delicious supplies.

The Captain decided to restart our journey at the worst possible time. The boat ahead of us fired its engine up and clouds of blue smoke billowed out completely obliterating our view of the narrow boat.

“I’m not going through Big Lock with that!” the Captain declared. I didn’t argue as I had never seen a boat smoke like that. As the boat cast off and headed towards the lock huge billows of blue smoke rose in the air. The Captain relaxed for 10 minutes then started his smoke free engine and headed for the lock. 

A straight section

They were still in the lock with a huge space beside them. Normally we would have moved off swiftly to save water but the Captain was unrepentant. 

“Look at all that smoke,” he muttered. “That poor engine could go bang at any time if its burning oil like that.”

I went forward to work the lock but didn’t help when the amply proportioned lady struggled to close the gate as she had three lively dogs running free whereas poor Lottie was on the lead to prevent her scrounging food from the people sitting in the pub garden.

At last we had the lock to ourselves. I emptied it but no one arrived to share it so we locked down alone but fume free.

The Captain was not so smug later on! A hire boat pulled out in front of us as I struggled to open the lock gate. Even though the Captain had to come and help me we caught up with it at the aqueduct around the corner as they were cruising so slowly. Normally the boats in front of us disappear into the distance. We aren’t fast cruisers but found we caught them up around one corner while crawling along at tick-over. The boat speeded up on the straights but stopped for every corner.

Eventually they speeded up a little but that put our boat at the speed where everything rattles on our boat. The Captain got round this by cruising slightly faster than cutting to tick-over until the boat had pulled away. We followed them a long time fascinated by their unusual cornering. They hit the bank with the nose then pushed off from the front to get round the bend. The Captain nearly went round the bend watching. Perhaps he should have shared lock water with the smoky boat!

To my surprise we never saw smoking boat again – I had been convinced there would be a huge bang and then we would assist the stricken vessel. 

neon blue coloured dragonfly

Going so slow we were able to appreciate the beauty of our surroundings. first we enjoyed the dragonflies flittering past us. Minutes later we had the joy of seeing a kingfisher flying before us across one of the wide flashes. We passed several of these flashes (or shallow lakes)where salt had been extracted leaving a shallow lake to the side of the navigation before the hire boat moored up leaving us to carry on at a faster pace. 

We moored at Lion Salt works as it started to rain. The only rings were next to deep mud pools which Lottie would have tracked into the boat but we found holes behind the concrete piling that had been made by previous boaters, and used them to put the pins in. All in all other boaters made this day more interesting but I wonder how far the smoky boat will go before it blows up.