Friday. Colder start than for a while; looking forward to working more difficult locks (oh yes?) Myra could not produce enough oomph on the end of the handspike to move some of the paddles. I climbed off the boat and she steered for the next two locks. One lock had three BW men greasing paddles, they did that lock for us and then two of them moved up to the next lock, greased the paddles and worked that one as well! Now for the bad news. One of the men told us that his foreman lived next to the Guillotine lock at Salterhebble and that the lock had broken down last night. As they have done no maintenance for the past two years, they have no spares and the repair will need a new gearbox, which may have to be made as a special order. When asked for a timescale for the repair, his prediction was for weeks, maybe a month. We immediately put plan B into action. We would stop at Elland for fish &chips as planned then carry out a strategic review on returning to the boat. The review completed, we turned Martlet around and headed back towards Brighouse, we will go up the Huddersfield narrow canal to just before the summit level and retrace the canal from there. Should the Guillotine be fixed when we come off the Huddersfield, we will retrace our steps and head for Todmorden. If not, then Leeds & Liverpool here we come! We moored up offside about a mile from Elland, at the old loading wharf for Knowles salt glazed pipes, plenty of water depth and lots of interesting broken shaped pipes at which to stare. The ground under the trees was covered in wild garlic, the smell was quite strong, a few bluebells past their best amongst the ferns.
Boats seen moving – Private 3, Hire 2
Weather – cloudy with moderate wind.
The 2008 journey thus far: 118 Locks & 255 Miles & 18 Swing Bridges
Journeys using bus pass: 4
