Grindley Brook, Llangollen – Thursday 26 July 2012
Tuesday I had no signal, Wednesday and Thursday were busy so here goes:

Tuesday I started out at 08:30 in brilliant sunshine, at the junction with the Llangollen Canal there was a queue of four ahead of me, however, once it was my turn it all went smoothly, with locks made ready by boats coming down.  Obviously this is a popular trip as were boats going past all day.  The handbook warns that because this canal has a flow of water the locks can be ‘difficult’ due to bypass weirs, with the rain that we’ve had they have been and care is needed steering into the locks.  Distance travelled was nine locks and seven miles, and I moored by the Wrenbury Church lift bridge which will be my next task.

Wednesday started with Braidbar no 90 ‘Mary A’ going past then on to the lift bridge (for a footpath) with controls on the non-towpath side.  The Wrenbury lift bridge was for a road and needed a key to operate the traffic lights and drop barriers.  There was a boat ahead of me and they kept it up while I went through.  Between there and Grindley Brook were four locks spaced out then three locks close together our boats met up at each one.  Use of the staircase of three locks were under the control of a C&RT lock-keeper and because there was a queue at each end it was “3 up 3 down” so there was a bit of a wait.  Due to this being a very popular canal Wednesdays are particularly busy with holiday boats as those on their first week are going up and those on their second week are going down.
When it was my turn the first lock was ok but something caught the front of the boat in the second lock and water went into the cratch and the boat started to tip forward.  A quick shut of the paddles by the lock-keeper levelled the boat.  He then stated that I was the second single-hander it had happened to that day!  Through the last lock again was ok and then I moored on the visitor spot and had a look.  Water had got in and the saloon was awash – I mopped up and moved what I could into the dinete area leaving the front steps and the two seats stacked to leave the floor as clear as possible.  A call to Peter at Braidbar to reassure me of what I needed to do to reduce damage and where to look.

Thursday and a quick check of the saloon showed that the surface water had all gone.  A check of the bilge at the rear of the boat gave a different story, over an inch of water.  If the area under the floorboards is 30 feet long and six feet wide that is 15 cubic feet of water.  The day, fortunately has been hot and dry while I’ve pumped out the bilges, using a power pump initially, then when it got too low for that using a suction bottle (meant for draining oil, but it was clean) and when that stopped working going on to the ‘magic’ cloths I bought at Crick.  As soon as I thought I’d finished more water would arrive. I’ll see what it’s like on Friday.
Jess has returned, she must like the boat.