Read Online The Boat Girls by Margaret Mayhew - Free Book Online

boat when you came along, then the lock’s
against
you and the boat has to wait outside while you bring the water up, or down, to its level. It’s all done by gravity and water pressure and manpower. See?’
    â€˜Sort of.’
    â€˜You will, once you’ve seen one working for yourself. We’ve got time to take
Cetus
out for a little spin up to Cowley lock this afternoon. Before that, we must do a spot of shopping so we’re ready to get going when the other two arrive tomorrow.’
    They bought tinned baked beans and sardines, margarine, bread, Camp coffee, tea, jam, sugar, tins of evaporated milk. Frances offered up her emergency ration book with the extra coupons for tea and sugar.
    The little spin up to Cowley wasn’t quite so simple as it had sounded. First of all, the engine on
Cetus
had to be started. This involved another shuffle round the motor’s gunwale and some bewildering instructions about handles and levers and rods and flywheels.
    â€˜I’ll take the starting handle to turn her over and when I think she’s ready I’ll begin counting. When I get to
three
you push the compression lever down. Ready?’
    Pip swung the handle vigorously – for all her small size, she was very strong. Round and round and round. ‘One, two . . .
three
!’
    Frances was too late the first time and jumped the gun on the second. Pip, patient as ever, began all over again. This time she got it right and the engine burst into a pulsating throb. Back round tothe stern again where Pip fitted the swan-neck tiller into its hold.
    â€˜Important lesson. Tillers reach all the way across the counter. They have a nasty habit of swinging about if left unattended and can knock you clean off the boat. That can be very dangerous on the motor if you fall near the propeller blades. If that ever happens to somebody, put the engine into neutral immediately. Got that?’
    â€˜Yes.’ Another terrifying hazard.
    â€˜You steer holding the tiller
behind
you
.
Engine controls are right here, just inside the cabin where you can reach them. Only three gears: forward, neutral and reverse. No brakes – you use reverse to slow down. The steerer needs all the space available for manoeuvre so anybody else on the counter has to perch forward on the gunwale – which means you in this instance, as I’m steering. Don’t worry, it’s quite safe. You can lean against the cabin sides and hang onto the ledge.’
    They untied – narrowboats, according to Pip, didn’t cast off, nor did they have port and starboard, but simply left and right, or inside and outside, the inside being the side nearer the towpath. You held in, or you held out.
Cetus
nosed its seventy-two-foot length from its place in the row and out into the cut. One arm of the Grand Union Canal turned towards the docks and the other, which they took, headed for theMidlands. So far, the scenery was a big disappointment. There were fields and hedges on one side, but the other bank was lined with ugly wharves and warehouses. The only pleasant smell came from the Nestlé’s cocoa factory – tantalizing whiffs of chocolate wafting around on the air. Pip shouted to her at her precarious perch on the gunwale.
    â€˜Another lesson: keep to the
right
of other boats on the Grand Canal, but stay away from the banks if you can. The cut’s about twelve feet deep in the middle but the mud piles up at the sides and you’re liable to get stuck in it if you’re not very careful. Catch the rudder in the mud and you’ve lost control so your bows go careering into the bank. It happens a lot at bad corners, but luckily there aren’t any on the way to Cowley.’
    â€˜What do you do, if you get stuck?’
    â€˜You use a shaft to try and shove the boat off. If you’re lucky, it works. If you’re not, you hope for a snatch from another boat passing – they tow you off, in other words.