Descending Marple locks

6/7/2017

Whimsical weather dampened my straw hat, but not our enjoyment of the descent of the Marple flight of 16 locks.
At the bottom, a landscape of an aqueduct carrying the canal, adjacent to a high, arched railway viaduct,  with the distant Pennines framed in each arch.

Working a lock involves one person on the boat, the other on the bank. The boat person has to thread the boat, 6' 8" wide, into the  7' 2" wide lock. Get it wrong, and 20 tonnes of steel boat hits solid stone. An embarrassing moment, and another scratch on the boat. When the boat is in the lock, and water is rushing in to raise or lower the boat, the boat hamdler must avoid being swamped by leaky locks or lockgates more resembling a waterfall. Leaving one lock to enter the next might involve holding it steady in a wind or against the pull of an overflow channel, while the lock is being readied.
The boat person also needs to make cups of tea, pass up raincoats,  find hats.

The shore person does more physical work, winding open sluices in the lock gates, opening amd closing the heavy gates, jogging between locks, cooperating with crew from other  boats.

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