Hapton

Jan told me yesterday’s blog was a bit rude.  In response I did mention that FMIL had told her the blog was getting boring and needed to be “sexed up”.  The post title certainly sent the Google Analytics stats into orbit.

The first part of today’s cruise from Rishton to Hapton was rather slow.  Waiouru was rather noisily telling us she had urban jellyfish and weed around her prop, however I was reluctant to go down the weed hatch knowing we’d only collect more. 

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves cruising around the contour lines on the side of what I believe is the Ribble Valley.  At the bottom we could see occasional glimpses of the River Calder.  There is a sharp bend on the approach to Church (the first time I’ve been in church for some time) with an imposing brick building directly in front of the boat.

There were some great views to the north after Church although with the smell of wood smoke on the breeze we thought the distant haze might be something other than mist or low cloud.

At one point we could see the canal ahead of us on the other side of a small re-entrant.  It looked as if the canal on the far side was higher but obviously that was an optical illusion.

On the far side of Church was the first of three swing bridges we passed though during our cruise.  Our timing was perfect as the crew of a plastic boat had just opened it and waited for us to also go through.  We called out our thanks and also considered with such luck maybe a Lotto ticket was in order.  However there was no such luck at the second swing bridge on the far side of Clayton-Le-Moors.  Whilst attempting to get against the bank and allow Jan to alight we acquired a Tshirt and towel carefully wrapped around the prop with a length of electric cable.  With no steerage Waiouru ended up across the canal.  As Jan went forward to the bridge three boats appeared from the opposite direction.  No one from the crews came forward to help with the bridge.  But then we had been lucky at the first bridge (scratch the Lotto ticket idea).  Whilst I checked out the religious clothing (holy) Jan managed to get the bridge open and allow the three boats through.  The steerer on the wide beam told us that it was very shallow behind him and he had already been down his weed hatch three times.

That information was rather disconcerting as we were hoping it wouldn’t get any worse.  As it turned out the rest of today’s cruise was uneventful when it came to the weed hatch.  I have the feeling the the wide beam steerer’s day got worse!

Jan took a photo of this interesting narrow beam dutch barge moored near Altham.

Emily-Anne has a very large hinged exhaust stack.  Perhaps she is steam driven?

The washing machine had been rotating away during the cruise and once moored at Hapton Jan managed to peg out the wet laundry before we had a late lunch.  Meanwhile the bow thruster electric pole hadn’t been working properly since I managed to get Waiouru stuck and aground at the swing bridge.  Fortunately the water was rather clear and I could see the problem was some urban jelly fish trapped in the port outlet.  I’m rather pleased we specified grills over the ends of the tube otherwise they would be around the bow thruster propeller and that would have been a particularly difficult situation to rectify.  I tied a piece of cordage around the handle of the boat hook and attached the other end to the boat.  Then I used the boat hook to clear the grill.  The idea was I wouldn’t lose the boat pole if I dropped it during the operation.

The last job was to fit the cupboard magnetic catches to the base of the bathroom door.  The previous catch hasn’t been strong enough to hold the door open when Waiouru rocks. Hopefully the twin magnetic catches will be more successful.