was well and truly knackered and without access to any spare parts, it was dead in the water.
The guys said that the Gamebird would be able to tow the Hue, obviously it would take us a longer to get to Falkirk, but we all agreed it was the best option, we had no hurry now and in fact I hoped it would give my brother a chance to catch up with us quicker if he was coming after us. Luckily for us Ken and Margret had been on a few canal boating holidays in their time so would be able to advise us on how locks and stuff worked. This was the beauty of having such a large group of people working together; there were so many more skill sets and knowledge available to us.
Chapter Thirty Four
We set off at midday. The noise from us and our engines seemed to be attracting some of the resident rotters from Bowling. We could see them starting to emerge from some of the houses and places along the river side and heading towards the noise. Thank God we hadn’t been for a look around there last night!
We stuck to the far side of the river. It took us a good hour to get all four boats safely through Bowling lock; hopefully we’d get better with practise as the Bowling rotters were almost upon us. But we were soon on our way at a speedy five Miles per hour top speed. Fortunately, this was faster than the rotters could move, however I couldn’t help but think back to how fast young Kathy had moved on the Saltwind. Maybe they moved faster when they were newly turned and slowed down as they decomposed?
The Saltwind followed behind the two houseboats and the Hope went ahead with David and Becky on board to check for any dangers ahead. A scout ship if you like. However, after a while we realized this wasn’t going to work very well as the noise from the Hope was attracting too many rotters to the canal side before we got there with the other three boats. The canal narrowed quite a bit in places and it was fairly daunting having to go past groups of rotters every so often, particularly in those narrower places. I don’t know if it was instinct or what, but they never stepped from the bank into the water, but I’m fairly sure if the boats had been close enough, they’d have clambered on board, so we stuck rigidly to the centre of the waterways!
Chapter Thirty Five
I knew from studying the maps back on the Somerset that the most difficult part of our journey was going to be quite early on. We had to navigate a low lock after which the canal actually goes through the centre of Clydebank. There are many shopping centres that have water features in them, but not many that have an actual working canal flowing through them! And it was just our luck that we had to pass through it. I knew from the maps that there were pedestrian bridges that had to be lifted in order for boats to be able to get under them. I just hoped that we would be able to operate them manually.
The rural tranquillity soon changed after the first few miles as the canal swung northwards and entered Clydebank. This is where we encountered the drop lock. Normally this lock was manned by British Waterways due to how hazardous it was supposed to be to navigate and we had four boats to get through it and hordes of rotters baying for our blood!
As we approached the lock, we cut our engines and let the boat’s momentums carry them slowly forward. There were high rise blocks of flats to one side of the lock and a main road blocking it at water level. I guessed this was why they had called it a drop lock. We tied the boats up on one side of the canal. Paul, David, Amy Becky, John, Ken and I climbed off the boats. Paul and David were still armed with their guns that they’d been given on board the Somerset. Becky and I had our trusty boat hook and axe, the rest of the guys had various tools that they had found aboard the boats.
There was a small brick built building near the lock where a safety barrier prevented any boats sailing into the lock and straight into the side of the
The guys said that the Gamebird would be able to tow the Hue, obviously it would take us a longer to get to Falkirk, but we all agreed it was the best option, we had no hurry now and in fact I hoped it would give my brother a chance to catch up with us quicker if he was coming after us. Luckily for us Ken and Margret had been on a few canal boating holidays in their time so would be able to advise us on how locks and stuff worked. This was the beauty of having such a large group of people working together; there were so many more skill sets and knowledge available to us.
Chapter Thirty Four
We set off at midday. The noise from us and our engines seemed to be attracting some of the resident rotters from Bowling. We could see them starting to emerge from some of the houses and places along the river side and heading towards the noise. Thank God we hadn’t been for a look around there last night!
We stuck to the far side of the river. It took us a good hour to get all four boats safely through Bowling lock; hopefully we’d get better with practise as the Bowling rotters were almost upon us. But we were soon on our way at a speedy five Miles per hour top speed. Fortunately, this was faster than the rotters could move, however I couldn’t help but think back to how fast young Kathy had moved on the Saltwind. Maybe they moved faster when they were newly turned and slowed down as they decomposed?
The Saltwind followed behind the two houseboats and the Hope went ahead with David and Becky on board to check for any dangers ahead. A scout ship if you like. However, after a while we realized this wasn’t going to work very well as the noise from the Hope was attracting too many rotters to the canal side before we got there with the other three boats. The canal narrowed quite a bit in places and it was fairly daunting having to go past groups of rotters every so often, particularly in those narrower places. I don’t know if it was instinct or what, but they never stepped from the bank into the water, but I’m fairly sure if the boats had been close enough, they’d have clambered on board, so we stuck rigidly to the centre of the waterways!
Chapter Thirty Five
I knew from studying the maps back on the Somerset that the most difficult part of our journey was going to be quite early on. We had to navigate a low lock after which the canal actually goes through the centre of Clydebank. There are many shopping centres that have water features in them, but not many that have an actual working canal flowing through them! And it was just our luck that we had to pass through it. I knew from the maps that there were pedestrian bridges that had to be lifted in order for boats to be able to get under them. I just hoped that we would be able to operate them manually.
The rural tranquillity soon changed after the first few miles as the canal swung northwards and entered Clydebank. This is where we encountered the drop lock. Normally this lock was manned by British Waterways due to how hazardous it was supposed to be to navigate and we had four boats to get through it and hordes of rotters baying for our blood!
As we approached the lock, we cut our engines and let the boat’s momentums carry them slowly forward. There were high rise blocks of flats to one side of the lock and a main road blocking it at water level. I guessed this was why they had called it a drop lock. We tied the boats up on one side of the canal. Paul, David, Amy Becky, John, Ken and I climbed off the boats. Paul and David were still armed with their guns that they’d been given on board the Somerset. Becky and I had our trusty boat hook and axe, the rest of the guys had various tools that they had found aboard the boats.
There was a small brick built building near the lock where a safety barrier prevented any boats sailing into the lock and straight into the side of the
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