An interesting couple of days! Basically we were way ahead of our schedule, so there would be short days ahead. Dewsbury Marina was very quiet and we seemed very welcome there. Calder Valley Marine has all the services and there was no charge for the mooring. Leaving the Dewsbury arm the next lock is immediately on the right after the bridge. My instinct was that a turn into the lock would not be practicable, so I turned left onto the very wide canal by the visitor moorings with the intention of turning there where I judged there was plenty of room. It turned out that I only had about 6 inches spare to make the turn. We had arranged to pick up Philip, a railway friend, at the Perseverance pub, as the nearest reasonably certain point to Ravensthorpe station. There is a recognised mooring there, but the pub looked derelict and certainly not very attractive from the outside. Nearby were apple trees and blackberries, so when Philip and his dog Sam arrived we went picking. Steve Atty's Canalplan software had put us at Coopers Bridge that evening, but there being no obvious mooring there according to our guide book, and with moorings and pubs at Mirfield, we decided to stop short there. Good choice! There is a Lidl canalside and the Navigation pub opposite the moorings had a good choice of ale. Sam took to the boat very quickly and throughly explored it, becoming very proficient at getting on and off to command. He did have a tendecy to wander, or explore the local scene but always returned on call. The next morning we set off to reach Huddersfield. The remaining Calder and Hebble Locks were cleared without problem, although it has to be said that the river locks all sit right on the river, so that the lock moorings, some better than others, are on the river itself and entry to the lock would be fun in a strong stream. The locks too were of varying size, but again no problem. At Coopers Bridge there are good moorings, though as we suspected, no facilities. We made the almost 180 degree turn in one to gain the river leading to lock 1 of the Hudderfield Broad Canal. It was tightly packed with duckweed. Naturally, Sam thought it was a nice lawn and fell in. Then he did the same, minutes later above the lock where the weed was similarly thick, blown down by the wind. All the Huddersfield Broad Locks were consistently short, requiring bows on the cill and then moving the stern round behind the opposite gate in order to shut the entry gate. The shortest, the last but one gave us only about 3" clear. I used a bungee to hold the rudder right back and keep it clear while the boat was rising in the lock. It also proved more reliable to rope the front up and keep a centre rope ashore to move the boat this way and that to keep the bows from fouling the top gate and the swan neck from fouling the bottom gate walkway. Not all the paddles were working or existed, so the rope at the front kept wild swings of the boat in check. Thus we arrived in warm weather at the loco lifting bridge. I hadn't realised that it is used as a
regular short cut and is quite busy. It is mechanised, with interlocking gates requiring the key of course. Philip went to perform the operation while I cast off. Putting the boat in gear there was a nasty sound and no prop wash. The wind was quite strong and the boat was now moving towards the opposite bank. A bit of reverse got some action and enough forward propulsion to clear the bridge but with an ominous rasping sound. Mooring up again a visit to the weed hatch revealed the prop frozen solid with masses of wire round the shaft, with a fleece attached to some of it. Attempts to free it over half an hour or so using wire snips produced only cuts to my fingers, so withdrawing gracefully, I called River Canal Rescue. Dave and Karen from Bronte Boats at Hebden Bridge arrived in about 45 minutes and set to work. It took a very long time, slowly snipping the wire, strand by strand, but after possibly 2 hours, there was still a long way to go. As we were only yards from our intended mooring,
Dave decided to return and fetch his dry suit to tackle the problem from the ouside. This proved beneficial as with the waterproof torch throwing some light on things from above to direct the attack it was possible to make more rapid progress. There appeared to be a skein of what appeared to be wire rope around one of the blades and removing this helped considerably. Finally, after another half hour the job was done. A visit to "The Aspley" and a beer followed.