5th and 6 th August

Having showered and breakfasted we left at about  ten to nine to be at the bridge a few hundred metres away at 9 O’clock for the opening. It was blowing hard from the South so from port to starboard and the canal wasn’t really wide enough to turn in and had no waiting place  so we hoped that the bridge would see us coming and open before we got there. It didn’t. I swore a bit having tried to ground the boat on the windward side a few times but kept drifting off in the gusts, eventually I had to keep powering onto the bank at about 30 degrees to the bank   to persuade her  to stay put and not drift over the the leeward side which would be harder to get away from. A motor boat, a Princess, came up astern. By 0930 with no sign of the bridge moving I found a phone number for the canal administration and Ailsa gave them a ring explaining the situation. The nice lady said she’d find out what was going on and phone us back. She didn’t but after a bit the motor boat came close and said the lock keeper had overslept and would be there in about 15 minutes. We eventually got through at about 0950. There were several bridges before the first lock. We’d been explaining to Sheena how going down was relatively simple as there was no turbulence. At the first lock there was a dutch motor boat ahead of us but she said she’d wait and we two could go first. Probably a wise move in retrospect. We were set up for the port side so went in on the port side, Ailsa and Sheena jumped ashore and we did what the canal said to do  which was to pass lines through the rings and back to the boat so they could be released from the boat once the boat was at the bottom of the lock. However, once stopped the boat drifted across the lock and couldn’t be held, particularly as we were all beginners so the lines aboard were sometimes not made fast so pulling on the line ashore was not particularly effective. Quite frustrating. We eventually got lines across to the lock and back to the boat and were held in position against the windward wall. For the next lock I rigged a breast line which went from amidships ashore but failed to explain properly that it needed to go ashore either leading at 90 degrees to the boat or leading aft so that I could go ahead against it so at the next lock it was put on ahead of the gate and I couldn’t use it to hold us as it wanted to pull us into the lock gate ahead. Eventually we worked out that we needed to use the breast line and put lines ashore with bowlines to the rings to start with, changing them over to doubled slip lines later. It didn’t all go swimmingly and we didn’t look all that professional but after a bit it got easier. I may not have mentioned that the wind was about 25-32 knots from the South so not easy conditions and, once we’d been through a couple of locks - 13 and 14 I think that they put out a warning saying that they thought conditions were unsuitable for further locking, locking was not recommended. Anyway we pressed on and it got better as the day went on and we ended up in the basin at the end of the canal at Sjotorp by about 1700 and topped up with fuel there before settling alongside for a chicken pie dinner.

The following morning it was still blowing but not much above 20 knots, from the SW now, and we needed to press on to keep to schedule so by 0855 were loitering around the bridge waiting to be first in so as to be on the leeward side of the lock, this was accomplished and by about 0945 we were departing Sjotorp with a smaller yacht astern of us. Once clear and having worked out that the buoyage direction had changed we set 2 reefed sails and had a lively reach to the first islands but with a dead to windward stretch ahead and  rocks all around and not being that slick in the turns and so on elected to motor from here. We had a fairly bouncy motor to windward  with a horrible short steep sea and about 22 knots of wind, for about 20 miles and stopped in a little harbour where we dropped anchor and Ailsa and I went for a walk ashore for an hour whilst Jean and Sheena peeled and prepared vegetables for dinner.

It looks like a couple of my posts haven’t stuck to the internet, I’ll try again.