The good thing about the Calder and Hebble Navigation has been the summer like weather and the variation of starting on wide river sections at the Wakefield end then on the upper section the mixture of river and canal. Travelling on a river section there will appear a lock that requires a right angle exit from the river then when you exit the lock a canal section may stretch for 2 -3 miles then through open flood gates you can resume on the wide river.
The not so good thing is the locks are varied in length with some making a tight fit for a 57 footer and a couple so far where one NB has had to be reversed out of the double lock as its been a no go to shut the gates past the stern of the boats. Then the lock has to be done twice to get two NBs through. Also the lock operating mechanism's have been dodgy with broken gear and of course the need to use a so called "wooden spike" to raise and lower the paddles.
Passing over the....
Stanley Ferry Aqueduct... opened 1839 and built on the same principle as the Sydney Harbour Bridge but 100 yrs earlier.. 7000 tons of Bramley Fall stone, 1000 tons of cast iron used in construction... 700 workers feed in local pubs, one of which, The Ship, still stands.....
Nearby the ....
British Waterways Stanley Ferry repair yard makes lock gates... New gates stacked with water being run over them to.. "acclimatize them"??..
There are sets of...
Flood gates, left open, in this weather..... Leonie just steered through a set...
A large rail bridge with a...
Very ornate finish to it's structural towers...
With locks approaching that needed a "Hand spike" it was time to use the carpentry skills. I had a spike. It came with the NB and is a "Peter Royal Special" handcrafted to exacting measurements to fit the worn out sloppy mechanism's...
Tom from NB Waiouru had been given a length of timber but it needed some shaping.
I had a skill saw and a hand saw which done the initial shaping...
Mine on the left.... the dude fishing in the rear caught over 40 fish... some prize fish about the size of sardines....
Then Tom....
Shaped it up past the "Splinter in the hand stage" with his sander....
I retired to our boat to....
Consume some Leeds Market Lamb chops... Good.... but not up to Davmet NZ standards......
Next day time to put the Skies to use...
Leonie trying to open a top paddle... some were just so stuffed it was nearly an impossible mission and it was a case of use them partly open or smash the timber spike...
You just put...
The spike in the slot and turn... spike in and turn... spike in and turn... spike in an.......
so slow. Then you got to do the same to close it.....
A bit of a relief from the frustration...
From a house next to a lock...
French Douge de Bordeaux.... or French Mastiff.. The lady owner bred them and had six more on site plus a Terrier and a Rottweiler that were running loose with this fella...We asked the price of a pup... she replied this fella was worth 7000 quid as he was a Champion of his breed....
He liked Leonie....
Moving on it was.....
My turn to "Spike"....
If upper body strength is not sufficient then...
Stand on the bloody thing....
With the locks being short there is nowhere to...
Escape the water that pours in..... this lock had to be done one NB at a time so the water didn't fill the front deck....
A lock side garden had....
Happy Sunflowers.....
A business can use signage for all sorts of reasons...
This one probably just.....
States the obvious....
Approaching Cooper Bridge Junction you...
Pass under these three bridges close together...
Then do the lock and exit...
Through the flood gate and to the right is the start of the Huddlesfield Broad Canal....
The sun shone all day and Spiking included...
It was just another day in paradise....
Tonight's mooring.... Nice and quite....
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