| |
 |
Crinan Canal
& the Clyde
Covers the period July 25 to 30, 2000
After leaving the anchorage at Puilladabhrain The 19 mile motor sail
down to the Crinan was uneventful, arriving just as three other boats
were entering the first lock. Inside the lock (#15) Judy went ashore and
paid the £90.50 for a three day permit. It was a tight squeeze with
four boats in the lock, which was manually operated. That meant that the
boaters had to do all the work of locking through. With four boats, we
had lots of crew to efficiently handle the lock, after which we
proceeded up a lush pastoral landscape, meandering through the Scottish
countryside.
The Crinan is a smaller more primitive canal system, with narrow
channels and locks, originally built from 1793 to 1801. It is now mostly
used by pleasure craft and some fishing boats. The locks are only 88
feet long and 20 feet wide, with a draft of 9.5 feet, and mast height of
95 feet. The 5 bridges are controlled by British
Waterways staff, and their hours of operation determine the
limitations of lock operations. That is, you could go through the locks
on your own at any hour, theoretically, but you could get by the bridges
only during the civil service hours they work. We saw one bad example of
that where we went through a bridge at about 1700; a German boat was
waiting to go through in the opposite direction and could then have gone
for several more locks, only to have the bridge closed in their faces as
they approached it. Very poor PR for the British Waterways staff!
[Crinan
Canal Skippers' Guide]
The manual operation of the locks is tiring to exhausting, depending on
how many people are helping. The first lock was no problem as we had 4
boats together. However, at the second lock we were left out as there
was not room for 4 boats and the other three went on, leaving us by
ourselves. We (Judy) was pretty tired after getting us into the second
lock. We then said it was too much and waited for another boat which we
saw approaching to come along so we could do the locks together.
I understand the narrow canal boats do this all the time as they go
through the small locks and canals that have these manual self operated
systems, but for us it was a first. I understand some of the French
locks are also manual, and we may be facing some in the 160 or so on our
way through to the Med in the fall. The operation is basically simple,
but involves a lot of running up and down lock embankments, handling
lines, cranking open sluice gates, and pushing VERY heavy lock gates by
means of long square timbered arms to open and close them.
 For
example, going up, if a lock is closed on the approach (and they are
supposed to all be left closed), the boat has to land a crewmember who
climbs up the lock embankment to walk up to the lock gates, to see
whether the lock is full or empty. If full, the crew has to go to the
far end to ensure the upper sluices are closed, then run back to the
lower gates, crank open (25 to 45 turns with a large crank handle (one
per lock, which is usually at the other end of the lock, wherever you
are)) the sluices to lower the water level in the lock. When the level
in the lock is at that of the boat, the gates can then be swung open, by
a long (15 to 20 foot) timbered arm that the crew has to push against,
forcing the heavy, poorly balanced gate against the pressure of the
water. If the water level is not completely matched, the gates cannot be
opened. Once the two gates are opened (one has to run up to the far end
of the lock and over the closed upper gate and back to the other side to
open the second), the crew on the boat motors into the lock.
Of course it was drizzling much of the time.
The shore crew then has to put the lines from the boat on appropriate
bollards to secure the boat, then close both lower gates, ensure the
sluices on each side are closed, then run back to the upper end of the
lock to open the sluices in that end, allowing the water to fill the
lock (but not too fast as the turbulence can wash the boat away from the
sides of the lock). When the level has been raised to that of the
upstream end, the gates can then be opened by the shore crew. The crew
then takes off the lines of the boat which then motors out the lock. The
crew then closes the gates and closes the sluices in the gates, then
runs either to jump on the boat, or runs along the bank to the next
lock, anywhere from 100 to 500 yards, to start the process over again.
Judy got a considerable amount of exercise going through the Crinan
Canal
That is why after being abandoned by the three boats after the first
lock and starting the second lock by ourselves, we waited for the next
boat to work through with them. There were two gentlemen on that boat
and so Judy had another crew on shore to help her with the locks. It
went more smoothly and we had a steep learning curve to identify
efficient ways to negotiate the many tasks to be done at each lock, such
as not forgetting to take the crank handle with you when going from the
downstream to the upstream gate.
The locks are numbered from the #1 sea lock on the Clyde side to #15
lock where we entered the system. We got through five locks and three
miles in four hours before stopping on a waiting wall for the night at
Dunardy Locks. The next day, leaving at 0800 as soon as the system
opened, we went through nine locks and 4.5 miles to Adrishaig Basin just
before the sea lock #1 by 1230. It was a heavy four and a half hours. We
stayed there for the night, wandered the town, got some supplies and
were off by 1000 next morning (in rain again!), going through the sea
lock into the open water of Loch Gilp.
We sailed and motor sailed down Loch Gilp into the Firth of Clyde, south
of Bute, then north up to Kip
Marina at Inverkip just south around the corner from the River
Clyde. It was a 38 mile run, not raining all the time, and we actually
had a chance to fly our spinnaker for a frustrating half hour before
giving up in the light fluky winds. Kip is a good first class marina
with many facilities for hauling and repairing boats. We wanted to have
our rudder checked (Remember Scalpay on the rocks?), our new Mariner
outboard fixed so it would start properly and tilt reliably, our stern
pulpit welded (It has been broken since our North Sea crossing with only
a temporary repair we did by inserting and duct taping a piece of rebar
in it.), our GPS checked as it was still sporadically "losing
satellite coverage", and the tracking of our autopilot which
frequently was wandering plus and minus ten degrees around our course
line. In addition we wanted a secure marina where we could leave Veleda
to do a bit of inland touring via train. We were quite happy with our
stay there from July 27 to Aug. 8, and got all the work done (except the
Mariner), and touring completed.
This was our first time in a marina with electrical hookups since
entering the Caledonian Canal eight weeks ago. Now we were back to the
mainland and "civilization" after a fantastic trip through the
Scottish Highlands and lochs of the Great Glen, Moidart and Knoydart
peninsulas and many of the Western Isles including Skye, Rona, Rum,
Mull, the Outer Hebrides, Staffa, Iona, Canna; a trip of a lifetime
through that glorious part of Scotland!
Next Log
|
