THE WIGAN FLIGHT.

 

Out of the lock

As I explained in my previous blog, the Wigan flight of 23 locks is not for the faint hearted. There are 21 locks in the main flight. Opened in 1816 it raises the canal 217ft over 2½ miles.

https://www.nationaltransporttrust.org.uk/heritage-sites/heritage-detail/wigan-lock-flight?rs=1

We were moored above the first lock of the 23, and as I have said, I had posted on the Wigan Flight Crew page, that we were intending on going up on Sunday and was pleased to hear that other boats were going up to.

What I wasn’t so pleased about, was a post from a boater, saying that they had reached the top lock around 2pm on the Friday and found it locked. They had to contact CRT to come and let them out.

After contacting CRT and being told that yes the lock was closed from around 2pm, and that we would need to contact them if we reached the top lock and found it padlocked, we made the decision to set off earlier than at first planned. We then had to rearrange thing with Neil and his family, as they were going to meet us at 10am and help us through the locks.

One of the other boats who had commented on my post let us know they were moored at the start of the flight one lock above us, we decided to move and join them.

The boat was called The Mole, based on the story The Boy, the Mole the Fox and the Horse by Charles Mackesy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy,_the_Mole,_the_Fox_and_the_Horse

It was owned by Keely and Dean Crowther. After we moored up they came out for a chat and we agreed to set off at 9.30am next morning. Later on 2 other boats moored up behind us and they also had paired up.

We got up bright and early next morning, but not before a hire boat turned up and started up the locks. This meant all the locks were set against us. This is were Neil came in very handy, he went ahead and helped the hire boat, and then set the locks for us.

Keely and I worked really well together, and it was great to travel with experienced boaters. Dean and the Captain worked in harmony together too. I will say though, I was definitely more gung ho than Keely when it came to whacking the paddles up after getting the ok from both Captains. Her boat is only a year old, so I can understand her being a little more careful and not wanting to damage it in anyway.

A perfect manoeuvre

Unfortunately we only met one boat coming down. A quiet day on the flight.

It took us around 4½ hours to get to the top. They were going to go a little further, but first Dean came to the pub, the Kirkless Hall, to buy Neil a pint for all his hard work and stayed for a couple more, Keely didn’t come as they have 2 sausage dogs which needed looking after, so she stayed with the boat.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Kirkless-Hall-Inn-100086515640684/

We moored at the top of the lock, and after a very nice buffet prepared by me for us and our helpers we had a quiet night recovering from all the exercise of the day. It was the best passage we have had, and the state of the canal and towpath had improved greatly since our last visit. All thanks to the Wigan volunteers.

The Captain had been stressing out about were to get our next pump out, as the ideal one at Rose Grove was out of action, he thought the one at the top of Johnson Hillocks flight was to soon, but wasn’t sure if we would make it to Reedley Marina. He decided that Reedley marina was going to be on Friday or Saturday. I knew that this was were Keely and Dean were heading for so once again I contacted them and asked if they wanted to buddy up again to do the 7 locks at Johnson Hillocks, soon everything was agreed.

We only cruised a short distance and spent the night at Adlington, and Hannah came with the 2 grand kids for a couple of hours. We tried a couple of the pubs, The Bridge, and the Inn the Dog House, they were both ok, but no darks on for the Captain. The Spinners was unfortunately closed, this was the one I thought might have had something on to suit the Captains taste, but hey ho never mind.

https://www.facebook.com/Bridgepubadlington/?locale=en_GB

https://www.facebook.com/Innthedoghousebar/

https://thespinners.pub/

Just as we were ready to set off next morning the Mole cruised by us and we soon caught them up.

After the 21 locks at Wigan, the 7 at Johnson Hillocks was a breeze and we were soon up. At the last lock we chatted to a group of guys who were fascinated by our life style, it turned out they were doing community service, or I think its called Community Payback now, but were a lovely bunch to chat with.

The Captain decided to moor up for the night and do the pump out in the morning. The Mole continued on and moored at Riley Green for the night, hopefully we will see them again soon.

We went to the pub of course, The Top Lock, no darks on for the Captain but a decent pint of Johns Smiths, so he was happy.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1016665219353470/

Unfortunately I was bitten whilst doing one of the locks at Wigan, and had a rather bad reaction to the bite (not that unusual for me), this resulted in my leg below the knee swelling up and becoming very hot to the touch, but we had to go on as our aim next day was to get to Blackburn to try the Calypso Caribbean restaurant. Situated right by the canal it used to be the Wharf Inn, and you can moor outside. There were the 6 Blackburn Locks between us and our destination, not a problem, or so we thought.

A bit of a mess

How wrong were we !!

At the 2^nd lock we met a widebeam coming towards us, great I thought the locks will be set in our favour, but at the third lock everything ground to a halt. I opened the gate and the Captain glided in, but when I tried to shut the gate it wouldn’t shut completely, leaving a 3ft gap. I tried various things, and the Captain couldn’t help me as he was in the lock. A lady volunteer lockee came along and we tried various things again but the gate wouldn’t close.

The Captain got our trusty barge pole and had a bit of a ferret around to see if he could feel what was causing the problem, and now we had a boat behind us too.

Eventually we had to phone CRT and Steve came out pronto with his trusty grappling hook and Keb (a large 3 pronged rake). He tried first with the grappling hook, nothing, then climbed down and onto our boat with the keb, but it wasn’t long enough to reach the problem. Here’s were the volunteer came into play, she was sure they had a longer handle keb and went off to find it, and find it she did. After much prodding and scrapping we tried the gate again and it closed. YIPPEE!!!!

The problem now was the pound above had emptied, as the top gates of the lock we were in were leaking, and all the water had escaped. But what was this, a boat was coming down the lock and to a degree filling the pound allowing us to cruise carefully into the next lock. Steve went off to let more water down and we finished the final 2 locks in the pouring rain.

We made it to the Calypso and had a wonderful meal in there, with enough left over for tea the next day.

A Caribbean Feast

https://www.calypso-caribbean-restaurant.com/

22 Miles, 35 Locks and 1 Canal.