Sunday 9 May 2021

Strong bywash sucks boat off course

After Zoom church this morning we set off towards the Audlem locks. On the way we passed this boat with three large green barrels at the back.  The barrels have what looks like tyres on top; there are loo roll fenders and no visible sign of propulsion.  Unless that's the front - unfortunately I didn't take any more photos.
Another distinctive boat is Whitefield, which we passed near the bottom of the flight.
Our modus operandi here is that Jan (unusually) sets the lock ahead while I steer, closing the top gate as I leave.
As I positioned Jubilee in the head of one of the locks so I could lower paddles and close the gate, the strong bywash weir pulled the boat into the (off)side. I had to pull it away with the centre line before I could steer into the next lock. When single handing going upstream I always take the precaution of taking a few turns of the stern line round a bollard in case the boat drifts out of reach.
I don't know why so much water comes down this canal from above Tyrley Locks. Especially as it presumably ends up joining the water that comes down the Llangollen Canal from the River Dee. Then I suppose it's downhill all the way through Chester to Ellesmere Port, also down the Middlewich Branch and on down the T&M to Runcorn and Manchester. Perhaps that's why. There's a lot of canal to feed. We tied up with just the top two of the flight to go; we'll do these plus the Adderley five tomorrow and then we'll be back at Market Drayton.

3 comments:

Nick said...

Most of the water that comes down the Llangollen goes into the reservoir and is used for drinking water - very little makes it into the main canal.

There's lots in the SU mainline from the Wolverhampton sewage works. That does make the bywashes horrible (Tyrley are some of the worst anywhere), but on the other hand you never run out of water, even in the driest summers, and mistakes on the short pounds sort themselves out pretty quickly.

Halfie said...

Nick, thanks for that.

Nev Wells said...

... another good reason to moor on the Shroppie - there is always a decent flow at Shebdon and as we know we are some distance from Wheaton Aston and Tyrley