Up the Wigan!

We‘ve made it up the Wigan flight, we had coffee and cookies ready on the back and we paired up with a single-manner (boat with only one person on it). It was the first time for me to helm a pair of boats breasted up. Once we’d got up into the first lock of the flight, we used the bow and stern ropes to secure the two boats together and then I had to learn on the job! 

Getting 30 tonnes of boats moving from stationary with only a 38hp engine is a slow and gentle manoeuvre whilst conversely, stopping two 15-ton boats with just rope holding them together is another feat in itself as inertia likes to play a game of drag the boat!

We were going uphill, so the locks were empty and looked huge with massive stone cills at the end of them. Steering the boats straight at these blocks of stone was a bit daunting, but by the fourth (or tenth!) lock I’d just about learnt how to allow for the inertia of the second boat trying to drag both boats into the lock at the front or the bounce in the ropes acting like a giant rubber bands and catapulting the boats backwards out of the lower gates. (As far as me and Tony, our friend for the ascent, could tell, it looked like Heather had been doing this for years! – Ian)

When we’re doing a set of locks, Ian and I usually swap around between being on the tiller and steering, and being on land managing the locks. To be honest, once I’d realised how big these locks were, I was happy to do the helming and avoid the dizzying heights of the gates and empty lock walls. I was also surprised by the local passer-bys taking photos and calling out to ask me how I was managing the two boats on my own. I had wrongly assumed that a lot of boaters paired up like this. Admittedly we’ve only done it once before and that was on the Caen Hill flight of 17 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Ian was the helm on that occasion, it takes a brave person to allow someone else to have full control of their precious floating home, and some locks have warped too much to accommodate the width.

So for those who like numbers, it took us just under five hours to navigate 2 miles of 21 locks, taking 30 tonnes of boat up 200ft (61m), the same height as 20 African elephants or a 20 storey building. Thankfully we did the flight last week before the heat wave arrived and since then we’ve been moored up next to Haigh Hall Country Park. It is surrounded by a great woodland park with lots of walks through the plantations. It’s also next to a golf course that comes down to the canal- note to self- don’t moor your boat near to a white pole with a pretty little red flag on it!

Now we’re into June and not only has the hay fever season started for both of us, but the horse-flies are on the attack again. I’m off to find recipes for homemade insect repellent as the little buggers love to bite me!