Cuttings from the Cut

Cuttings from the Cut No 1 - 19th Oct 2009

Since moving onto the 57 feet long Eponine narrow boat on 2nd September,
I’ve not exactly moved very far. I have however enjoyed hugely the September sunshine whilst completing shed reconstruction at home and pottering on the Staffs & Worcs canal between Kinver, Wolverley, Stourport and back again.

There has been masses to learn about Eponine, how to drive her and of course, about negotiating canals and locks. Emerging from Wolverley Court lock one Saturday morning, I was going nowhere fast despite lots of engine revs. There was obviously something amiss not including my daughter who was on board. We drifted to the bank and I switched everything off.

I knew what was called a weed hatch was lurking somewhere at the back end of the boat. On lifting the engine cover, there was the suspect and my first problem, how to open it. The fixing bar across the top was easily removed but then what? Not a hinge or handle in sight. Cautious hammer tappings didn’t shift anything but closer inspection of the lid indicated a potential joint that was not welded. Insertion of a screwdriver elicited a reluctant release allowing a shoebox sized structure to be lifted up vertically. I was then staring into a dark, dank, rectangular maw quietly gargling thick brown, cold, canal water.

Nothing else for it but to roll up my sleeve and akin to the vet at the rear end of a cow, plunge my hand and arm into the depths. The propeller was quickly found and the mass of gunge wrapped around it. As I clawed it away, the gunge started fighting back! It was in fact masses of weed cuttings from the recently mown banks including stinging nettles. Clearance did the trick though and we were soon on our way again, into another sunny warm September day, bound for the exotic shores of Stourport.

I cast off proper on Thursday 15th October, sailing from Kinver to the bright lights of down town Stourbridge. It was a misty moisty, morning and turning into what for me was a new stretch of water, I soon found myself scraping along the bottom of a section of the Stourbridge Canal. Water levels were so low that as I edged towards the next lock gate, I could not get the boat close enough to the bank to get off. Wading was definitely not an option but eventually I found enough water to nose the bow to the bank with the arse end jutting out across what little water there was.

The solution to this difficulty was thereafter quite simple. I opened paddles in both the top and bottom set of lock gates and as water drained straight through from the upper pound, I watched the water level creep up the exposed mud flats on the shallow lower section that Eponine was in. Once fully afloat again, there were no further problems, other than my sometimes erratic manoeuvring skills. No doubt there will be more intransigent problems to tackle in the future but so far, it is all huge fun.