The sixth day of our April 2011 cruise took us on more canals which seem to be rarely used. We passed only one moving boat all day (10 hours cruising time)!
This 6'49" timelapse film shows us turning right out of the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch onto the Walsall Canal; then winding in a shallow winding hole (shaft needed); turning into the Walsall Town Arm and tying up just before the basin (I didn't know I could have pushed the yellow boom out of the way to moor in the basin itself); ascending the Walsall Locks; turning left onto the Wyrley and Essington Canal towards Wolverhampton. You'll see we stopped a few times for prop clearance.
The next timelapse film should show the continuation of this day, where Captain Ahab joins us for the descent of the Wolverhampton 21.
6 hours ago
5 comments:
Well all the lock gates seem to have been reasonably watertight with the notable exception of the top gate on the lock below Birchills Bridge!
It looked quite clean too for such an urban canal, so I guess just a couple of times opening the weed hatch wasn't too bad really?
Oh and the weather... I've quite forgotten what the sun is and +C temperatures... LOL
The camera doesn't show what's lurking just under the surface. Reversing out of the Walsall Town Arm we picked up a shirt round the prop - that took quite a bit of work to remove.
Incidentally, I've just spotted the lifts going up and down in the Walsall Art Gallery.
Thanks Halfie,
I was born on the banks of the Walsall Canal, (well close by!). I lived there for the first 20 years of my life and the canal was my childhood playground, with the occaisional breakaway Ernie Thomas butty as a rather large toy. It has clearly chaged a lot but I was able to pick out the bank which our garden backed onto.
Graham
Graham, I guess there were rather more boats on the move then!
Halfie, the majority were the Thos Clayton tar boats going to Pleck gas works. The brigde into the works is on your film & looks to be all that survives. There was also the odd horse drawn boat in my very early days and I remember the very smart Willow Wren boats. I loved their names and the sound of the engines - still do!
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