Knotty
Visit
date: 20th August 07
Peter Matthews writes:
Bank holiday Monday was quite busy on the canal. We were making our regular Bank holiday trip down to Froghall Basin. As we approached Consall Forge we met a couple of boats we knew, both had overnighted in the basin.
Stopping only to fill up with water, helps with the ballast, we made our way down the lock and under the gauge which correctly said that we had the headroom. Then down to the tunnel.
Negotiating
the bend we entered the tunnel, with all passengers (three) and the dog
standing on the bows. Not that it was necessary , we had over an inch
to spare on our roof corners and several from the roof to the top. Navigating
through the tunnel means adopting a rather strange and contorted position
and looking towards the bows along the top side of the boat as of course
it is too low to stand.
However not even a bump as we made our way through, the barge board on one side keeping us to the centre of the tunnel. Safely through we went and then down the lock into the basin to join two boats already there. The next day we were joined by a third. Although our boat is only small, 30ft the others were a full sixty so we were the baby in the basin.
On
leaving we only had the one passenger and the dog, again by standing in
the bows we slipped through easily, halfway through the dog went to the
stern leaving only one passenger for ballast. The trip through is quite
unique and seeing the half circle of light at the end makes for an interesting
trip.