We love France, and so we contrived another stop before leaving France, and arrived at Dunkirk, a few miles away, where we wanted to see the 1940 evacuation museum.
We left Gravelines for Dunkirk near to high tide. A small fishing boat, seemingly unused to 17 tons of post industrial aluminium elegance lurching down the channel, reversed out of its mooring into our path causing an quick change to full reverse for us and an apologetic wave from them. It was a short drift with the tide round to Dunkirk. The coastline was largely industrial until the old town revealed itself as we headed down the harbour.
We missed the famous Dunkirk Siren marker buoy at the entrance to Dunkirk, but latter spotted her reclining on the dock awaiting redeployment.
The 1940 museum told the story of the evacuation of Dunkirk. The speed of the German advance in 1940 made us wonder if Putin had been expecting a similarly quick advance in Ukraine. We walked out to the beach where it all took place afterwards.
The next day we headed out along the coast to Belgium. We chose the smaller port of Blankenberge rather than the big ferry port of Zeebrugge. The big red sail came out and with the assistance of tide we kept up 6 knots most of the day in 5-9 knots of wind.
In Blankenberge, Bernie had a good run on the beach and we sampled Belgium beer at one of the many beach bars, until we got too hot in the sun and we went in search of Belgium chocolates.
The next day Bernie stayed at home whilst we took the 15 minute train ride into Bruges. This beautiful town was a mixture of quiet streets and just around the corner, thronging tourists. Not a mask in sight – it was great to see the pandemic is finally over.
Our next stop would cross over the border into the Netherlands, so whilst we waited for the tide to turn in our favour we headed into town to make sure we an adequate chocolate supply for the trip.
Boulogne was an active fishing port with more bustle and less tourists than some places we had been along the coast.
Bernie was super excited about a French smelling town again, and especially one with lots of fishy smells. He started demanding a walk around the town as soon as daylight appeared. He wasn’t disappointed and pulled us up the hill to the old town in search of cafes and fallen chips. We returned in time for the nice gendarmes from Calais to visit the boat and stamp our passports.
Spring time in the old town of BoulogneWe went straight out for bread and wine – and I enjoyed this for dinner.Something more substantial for lunch the next day, 3 course meal with wine – happy to be back!
The forecast for the second day after we arrived was originally ‘a spicy day out’, then increased to ‘you won’t need extra chilli with this’ and finally ‘this is going to spoil your whole day’. We headed out to the harbour entry channel on foot and thanked the clever weather forecasting people for telling us the best day to sail. When all the fishing boats stay in port, its a good day to stay on land.
When calm conditions returned the fishing boats on the wharf opposite us left in the middle of the night (ok, maybe dawn) and returned to sell their fish on the quay opposite us in time for our morning(ish) walk. The fish shops are a famous tourist haunt for the town and sell everything off the boats fresh.
We bought fresh fish fillets, oysters and these whelks from the market. Beautiful with some garlic butter.
We thought we might head to Dunkirk next, but found this little town (Gravelines) accessed by a drying canal that was reported to be super friendly but a little tricky to get to. Red flag to a bull… we were going. They can fit 15m boats and we are no more than 14.5 (ish). We snuck out of Boulogne just after lunch to ensure arrival at the canal entrance at high tide.
The coast was surprisingly rural as we approached Calais. I did an extensive rigging check from the front deck.
As we approached Calais the wind picked up to over 20 knots and the choppy waves from behind made it too rolly for sunning oneself on the foredeck. The ferries on the Calais-Dover run kept coming to say hello and look at our boat. I was later informed we were crossing a ferry lane.
We arrived at the entry channel which was distractingly narrow and had 2 knots of tide crossing it. It seemed like we were approaching at 45 degrees to the channel. I steered a course so we safely crabbed our way into the channel, with Fi watching the chart plotter and the seas closely, and shouting “more to starboard!” to ensure we wouldn’t hit the port side wall. After a few km of channel we squeezed through a lock gate and pulled up at pontoon 2 in the marina. Curiously all the other boats seemed much smaller than us.
Gravelines used to be a vibrant port on the coast, but silting led to its decline as a trading port. These days its more sedate with rotund older gentlemen snoozing on their boats in the emerging spring sunshine trying to recall the boat jobs they were doing today.
The town still has a moat and walled defenses. Fi jumped the moat in a single bound.
This is another example of the architecture of the Marquis de Vauban a French engineer, who was responsible for a number of fortifications along the coast, some of which we saw when we cruised in Brittany. He is thought to be one of the greatest engineers of his time. The town centre is shaped as a star with the moat around the outside.
Beautiful moat with the fortifications for the town.Taking a bike ride through town and around the moat. Bernie was having some mandatory rest at home.Having completed her ride through the fountain, Fi wondered about the type of water it might be….Looking towards the sea. To the left of this picture, the canal continues to the marina. This is not quite low tide yet.
Low tide at the marina gave both of us a shock when we left one morning. We could clearly see the bottom, and boats on the inside pontoons would sink into the soft mud. We remained floating, as we were placed on the outer pontoon. This boat looked like it had been settling in the mud now for a few years.
We are keen to see a little more of this coast line, and on our next trip we visit Dunkirk in France, and also plan our next country change into Belgium, leaving behind cheese and baguettes, for chocolate and beer.
It was finally time to shake off our winter inertia and venture out into a world beyond Eastbourne.
The passage to Boulogne is 50 miles in a straight line. But the tide goes from 0 up to 3 knots sideways so a straight line is a curved line. And then there are shipping channels that you must cross at 90 degrees. But you must point across at 90 degrees so with the tide it might be 75 degrees or 105 degrees. And the shipping channels change direction so 90 degrees might point you East and a few miles away 90 degrees might point you East North East. But at least we are sure about our boat speed because it is dependent on the wind and the forecasted direction and strength is always right.
So we started with a plan, and then we changed it, and changed it again as the conditions changed.
Eastbourne marina had been a friendly sheltered harbour for Away over winter. Dinner at the Grand Hotel and catching up with friends were highlights. But Bernie never quite fell in love with pebble beaches and the local Harvester never felt like our local. It was time to return to the land of baguettes and fine wine. At 5 am the alarm reminded us sailing in tidal areas is not always on our preferred timetable.
The Eastbourne lock dropped us a disconcerting distance into the exit channel.
We slowly made our way out with the center board raised for extra clearance.
The wind was behind us and our recent practice with the pole was put to good use. This used to be one of our favorite ways to sail on Addictive and Away seems equally happy with this configuration.
We managed to get further along the coast than we expected before picking our moment to dodge the big ships in the shipping channel. Our path successfully avoided 5 of them but the last looked a little close.
A couple of minutes later Fi appeared on deck looking suitably chuffed and announced she had chatted to the ship and it was changing direction for us!
The wind and waves built to 20 knots and 1-2 meters as we scooted across the no-mans-land between the east and west shipping channel. We experimented with some reefs and different sail configurations. It was looking as if we might sail a straight line to Boulogne if the wind continued and we hit the shipping channel far enough north.
Bernie was flat out helping with everything.
There was one ship that was on a collision course with us, but Fi jumped on the radio and soon had him sorted out.
I was just commenting that we had 30 minutes till the edge of the shipping channel and then we would need a close look out for crab pots, when a crab pot whistled past a few meters to starboard. We were back in French waters.
Approaching the French coast the waves started reflecting off the shore and it became more and more confused. Away handled it with ease but we were extra careful when going forward on deck.
We had made the crossing faster than expected, and once safely docked we did perform arrival formalities: wee on the dock (Bernie), buy baguettes and red wine (Fi & Adrian).
We also did the other more boring arrival formalities, such as filling in forms, and getting a visit from the lovely police officers from Calais who drove down to visit us especially and give us the much coveted stamp in our passports.
The next day the entrance to the harbour looked slightly different with gusts into the 50s! We might stay here a few days till it calms down. Boulogne is the biggest fishing port in France, so there is plenty of food to keep us interested.
Being in Eastbourne we have not had too many distractions from the long list of boat jobs we wanted to get done before heading to the Baltic. Here are some of the jobs we got done.
We secured some storage boxes in the cavernous unused spaces under the floor.
Installed an retractable clothes line in the tech room.
Modified the bimini cover so it can be put away without detaching the front frame which simplifies set up and put away.
After
Organised the sail locker with some boat hook holders, shelves for paddle boards, storage boxes, and electric outboard mount point.
Installed a gas strut under the bed so we can get to the storage without holding up 753kg with one hand whilst accessing storage with the other.
Crocheted an orchid hanger (first indoor plant…its a slippery slope)
Installed an offshore safe fruit bowl
Improved the bike storage (yes it was worse before)
Found a good spot for Bernie’s folded carriage
Fixed some issues and learnt lots about our distributed power system. You CAN read the stories here.
There are always more boat jobs to be done, but for now this represents for us a good start and it means we can head off. Its sometimes hard to break the inertia, especially when boat jobs are always there, but we are committed to continuing our journey. The last big job is to haul out and hose off the bottom of the boat from a winter of sitting still (its looking pretty green), plus check our anodes, however the Sovereign Harbour boat lift is fully booked for months, so we have to find another port in which to do this – so off we will go!
We expect many owners first experience of distributed CAN based electrical systems will be when they pick up their Garcia. In our last boat, a wire ran from the switch panel to the light/fan/etc and back. In the Garcia power goes to distribution ‘blocs’ to which the light/fan/etc is connected, and the power is turned on/off by a message over the CAN network. After about hull 24 the Scheiber CAN based power distribution was used not just for lights, but for almost all power distribution.
There is lots of discussion about whether this more complex system is ideal for an exploration style boat, but for us the important thing is been learning the skills to fix the system when it fails (its on a boat). We are no experts, but we thought we would collect together some stories and learnings that might help other owners.
Here are a few things that were not immediately obvious to us:
Most of the lights and fans are on lighting blocs. Your light switches talk wirelessly to these lighting blocs and you can have fun reconfiguring them to switch on the things you expect them to switch on.
The navigation lights are on a lighting bloc. If the bloc fails, your nav lights fail. You need to have a plan. Ours did fail when we were in port and we wrote about it here.
Bloc 9s are used for most of the power distribution. These have some configuration options that can have unforeseen and expensive consequences. You can read about one such experience here.
One of the options you can configure on a Bloc 9 is to automatically power on when the system restarts. This might be set for a Fridge/Freezer so that they come on after a power outage. Perhaps somewhat less obvious is when you leave the boat for a few weeks, turn off the fridge on the Navicolor, and leave it propped open. If there is a power out event whilst your are away, the fridge will restart and run flat out as it is open, and therefore using the same amount of power as a small town.
Here’s some things we would have told ourselves to do when we picked up the boat, based on our current 6 months of experience:
Get the Scheiber English documentation. There is not much, but its worth having.
Make sure you have the Schieber schematics from Garcia. These will tell you which bloc runs the ‘chart table light’ and where that bloc is physically located.
To do any configuration on the Navicolor you will need a 4 digit code. Get this before you leave.
Reconfigure a light switch. This will practice using the schematics to find a bloc. Also we like that the switches now make sense to us!
Check the options on the Navicolor for the autopilot. Try to bypass the CAN switching using the fuse on the Bloc 9 for the autopilot. If the Navicolor fails you might need to do this.
Write down a plan for navigation light failure and Navicolor display failure
After we returned from our canal boat trip we noticed some lights in the boat were not working.
In this brave new CAN bus world we need first to find the Scheiber lighting bloc:
Look at the Scheiber schematics and work out which lighting bloc is responsible for the failed lights
Look up the location of the the lighting bloc in Scheiber schematics boat layout page
The lighting bloc for the failed lights was behind the chart table and a quick inspection showed it was flashing red, but not green which indicate the bloc number in the network. When we looked at the Navicolor display the bloc was missing from the display.
Blocs 2 & 3 are disappointingly absent.
We noticed that a second bloc was missing from the Navicolor display. Reviewing the schematics we discovered the second failed bloc managed our navigation lights. The icons to turn on the navigation lights had also disappeared from the Navicolor display. This bloc was also flashing red with no green lights.
Two failed Blocs together in the chart table. Co-incidence? Both have power an no visible damage to the boards.
Garcia asked us to check the power and to bypass each failed Bloc in turn on the CAN bus. As the voltage was good and neither Bloc came alive when the other was bypassed, Garcia determined that the blocs had failed and needed to be replaced. Garcia noted that they had been using the blocs for 7 years and 98% never failed.
We got 2 new replacement blocs and transferred the wires from the old blocs to the new bloc. One of the wires tells the bloc what number it is in the network, but the configuration, and light switches need to be configured. We understand the configuration can be recovered from the last backup, but we chose to do it manually. The Scheiber schematics show the function of each slot and the relevant icon can be configured on the Navicolor screen.
Light switches can be assigned to functions on the lighing bloc by (surprisingly you can find English documentation on this on the Schieber web site):
Long press (1.5sec) the left switch on the lighting bloc – this will make slot 1 turn on and off (ie if its a light it will flash)
If you want to assign a new switch:
Press the light switch that will turn on that light/fan/other
Then press the light switch that will turn off that light/fan/other
Press the left switch on the lighting bloc again to move to the next light/fan/other on the bloc and repeat
Our observations from this experience are:
As the Scheiber lighting blocs are used for our navigation lights, a failure is a safety issue.
It would be possible to substitute another bloc to get the navigation lights going again – this is likely the quickest option
With some fiddling and some spare wire we could bypass the bloc and turn on the navigation lights (even if the Navicolor was dead)
It took Garcia about 6 weeks to get us a replacement bloc
Knowing how to reprogram the blocs and light switches is a necessary skill
We now carry a spare lighting bloc and could install it. In hindsight we think it would have been very useful to have reprogrammed a few light switches when we got the boat as this process uses most of the steps we need to replace a bloc.
When we are on autopilot, and the waves get over 1.5m and are not directly on the beam, the following happens:
1. An autopilot alarm goes off accompanied by a ‘No Rudder Response’ message
2. The dog rises from his slumber, barks and starts running madly around the boat trying to find the cause of the beeping
3. The autopilot switches off
4. Panicked people start diving around the cockpit trying to regain control boat control
What is that beeping thing?!!??!!
We have a single NAC-3 autopilot running a Jefa steering arm with an RF25 rudder sensor. The problem, however, turned out to be none of these, but was a configuration issue on the Scheiber electrical system.
Our diagnosis of the autopilot issue took several months:
1. We did the dock based calibration of the autopilot. No change
2. Garcia ‘fixed’ the problem. Based on the boats track we suspect they ran the dock and sea calibration of the autopilot. No change.
3. Garcia contacted French Navico (B&G provider) who suggested changing some autopilot configuration parameters. No Change.
4. We contacted Navico UK (brilliant service & knowledgeable people). Over the phone analysis suggested a slipping clutch on the Jefa steering unit could be the culprit. Jefa confirmed it was not slipping.
5. We finally worked out that the voltage getting to the NAC-3 autopilot dropped as soon as it attempted to move the Jefa steering arm. The NAC-3 didn’t have enough power to move the Jefa arm, detected that the rudder hadn’t moved when instructed, and chose to give up and go home.
Steering components require smaller agile person access.
The power to the NAC-3 comes from a Scheiber Bloc 9. Its not hard to open these things and with a multimeter we could confirm there were lots of volts (14) coming in to the Bloc. We measured the output voltage which was an okish 12.5V. But when the autopilot was engaged and attempting to engage the Jefa arm we could see the voltage drop from 12.5V to 3-5V.
The Bloc 9 for our autopilot was in the tech room near the inverter/chargers.
We moved the NAC-3 to another port on theBloc-9 and it worked fine with no voltage issues. It seemed like the output slot was fault.
We later discovered that the ‘faulty’ slot had the ‘Soft Start’ option turned on and this was causing the drop in voltage. This option can be selected on the Navicolor display. Once reconfigured, the original port worked with the autopilot.
We learnt that:
Always check the Scheiber configuration if there is a hint of an electrical issue (or not)
Its simple to open the Bloc 9 and test voltages with a multimeter
Now past the canal closure we took a slower pace. We found a great pub (The Malt) at Aston-on-Trent and stayed for a few days. Bernie enjoyed the walks and chasing squirrels. After enjoying this idyllic spot, we meandered a few miles east to a town called Shardlow.
Historic Shardlow was once a thriving canal port and many of the original buildings are still there. Most are Grade 2 listed and the town has an other worldly feel about it, They still cover it in mist to give it that genuine industrial age feel (think Peaky Blinders without all the gangsters).
We stayed one evening in Shardlow as we had some plans to meet up with friends in a few days.
Large lively lock
After a few large locks (the locks in this part of the country are designed for 2 narrowboats or 1 wide narrowboat), the canal soon turned into the River Trent and we were rushing along at 15 knots (?) propelled by a vigorous current and pondering the return trip against the current. Just before Nottingham a barrier across the river appeared out of the mist. Its designed to catch stray canal boats that miss the ‘All routes turn left’ sign, before they plunge headlong over the weir. We pulled hard on the handbrake and spun to the left just in time.
Nottingham was our first big city for a while and we planned to meet friends and have a quick look around. A friendly local boater said it was safe enough in the city center if you didn’t mind people banging on the boat or jumping aboard at night. He was heading to the River Trent where there was a more peaceful mooring and better pubs. A quick discussion together ensued, and we agreed to awkwardly stalk the nice old mate with the good advice. The Trent turned out to be an enjoyable stop for us too.
We parked outside the council chambers, and again, pub life called, as well as some provisioning, and some bike riding. After a couple of quiet evenings, we retraced our steps through Nottingham stopping in the city centre to visit the limestone caves that are under much of the city. They have been used for everything from shelter, fresh water, cellars, toilets, tanneries and secret meeting places, although not usually at the same time.
The return trip up the river was somewhat slower, but we made way against the rushing torrent and avoided being sucked back over the weir. The countryside changed from industrial megaliths to impossibly charming country manors in the time it takes to fill a lock.
Swans visited the boat looking for handouts. Bernie soon realized these big hissing beasts were not scared by his big dog bark. One in particular notified us of his presence by tapping on the boat, to which Fi responded with the requisite amount of swan treats out the window.
As we headed south the days turned colder. The fields took on a white morning tinge, the canals iced over and knots in the ropes barely unraveled. Its surprisingly hard to open the lock doors even with a thin sheet of ice on the water.
But by now we had acclimatised and the cold still conditions often led to beautiful sunsets on the sun deck. When people warned us about English winters, we knew it would be like this.
We found a few tunnels, which, not as exciting as the Harecastle experience still made interesting navigation. These are apparently big enough for two vessels to pass , although we didn’t have the opportunity to prove this rather optimistic proposition.
At Foxton the canal headed up a hill in a series of locks all joined to each other. They even have friendly volunteers to ensure you empty and fill the locks in the right order…red first and then white, or was it white then red? Next to the locks are the remains of a hill side lift that reduced the lock time of 45 minutes to 8 minutes in an effort to compete with the pressures from the developing rail network. There are plans, but not funds, to restore it to its former glory.
Unexpectedly we ran out of canal. The locks ahead were closed for maintenance so we took to the road for a quick jump to another canal. There are no tides, currents, shipping lanes or channel markers, but perhaps canal navigation was more complex than we had given it credit for.
We were soon safely landed in a new and more open canal. A few miles further on we reached our final destination and after two enjoyable months we left The Earl for new adventures.
What did we learn?
Bernie loves loves loves canal boating.
Locks are hard work and lightweight coats would have been better than offshore gear.
The user interface on the canal app could use some work to make stoppages clearer – oops.
Mud is okay.
Winter is okay.
We think we prefer a “reverse layout” style of canal boat with the bedroom at the front. The Earl was traditional layout.
We need to go further north for snow.
That the people that treat lock goings on as a spectator sport are called “Gongoozlers”.
That Bernie is the best behaved Springer Spaniel in the land. He got just so many compliments on his nature.
South of the Harecastle tunnel was industrial Stoke-on-Trent, but to the north we turned on to the Macclesfield Canal and the buildings gave way to fields and little towns and eventually the Peak District hills. Our first climb was the Bosley Locks, a series of 12 locks. There were so few boats travelling at this time of year that we found a boat stopped for lunch in one of the locks which saves the need to tie up.
With Christmas approaching we decided stock up with plenty of coal and Christmas goodies for a quiet Christmas on the boat.
Alas there was no snow on Christmas day. On boxing day we enjoyed a quick walk up to the Lyme estate, the 1300 acre estate and deer park that is Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice. It didn’t snow but felt like it could have done.
At Marple we made a sharp right hand turn and headed into the Peaks and for the first time ran out of canal at historic Bugsworth Basin. Much of the infrastructure where lime and gritstone were loaded onto canal boats can still be seen.
With no more canal, we continued on foot into the hills, although many of the tracks were wet enough to take a canal boat. We came across old mine workings in the side of the hill and even the remains of the crane for lowering material to the valley floor.
New Year was fast approaching so we climbed another hill. We decided to stay in Bugsworth and share the midnight revelry with other boaters. Although we misjudged the profile of your average canal boater most of whom were off to bed at 8pm with a cuppa.
Now half way through our trip we reluctantly turned south and retraced our steps toward the Harecastle tunnel, considering whether to turn right and go through Birmingham or left and head towards Nottingham.
We booked to go through the tunnel at 8am, shortly after dawn, although this still required a pre dawn departure from our overnight stop. We were, perhaps unsurprisingly, the only boat going through the tunnel at this time of day. Maybe we would be visited by the tunnel ghost!
We entered the tunnel in drizzle and half light, but came out to bright sunshine. It amazing how the climate changes from one end to the other. To our amusement there was only one boat waiting to head north through the tunnel and they were a Tasmanian crew. Its mostly mad aussies on the canals this time of year.
With the worsening covid resurgence we decided to head towards Nottingham and the more rural route south, leaving Birmingham for another trip. A planned closure on the canal meant we needed to ‘rush’ as much as one can on a canal. We disappeared into deep locks and passed the old pottery kilns in Stoke, fed the swans in Rugely, and braved the snow in Stone.
Bernie going flat out!
After a week of rushing we made it passed the railway bridge that was being worked on, with only hours to spare.
After a month we think we have settled into canal boat life, drinking stout and reading the Tillergraph at the end of a hard day on the cut.
We awoke one morning ready for a big travel day north on the canal, but as Fi surveyed the days route she discovered we had to book to go through a tunnel that was only an hour away. So far it had been a turn-up-and-go system.
We quickly got on the phone and tried to book a passage, but soon discovered the boat was too deep to fit through the tunnel. Surely an administrative oversight in the boats registration as it didn’t seem any bigger than any other boats. A quick cycle to the tunnel entrance and we were assured that if we turned up at 8:30am in two days time the tunnel master would sort us out (or send us back). Boats go through the tunnel in convoy in one direction at a prescribed time and when they all emerge a convey enters from the opposite direction.
The tunnel entrance looked sort of small, but doable.
With a day to kill in the Stoke-on-Trent we went in search of a booster. We walked for four hours but were rewarded with sore shoulders and the knowledge that we were once again as safe as we could be from the raging pandemic. We celebrated with one of the finest stouts we’ve tasted made at the local Titanic brewery.
A little research revealed that the tunnel entrance was indeed the largest part of the tunnel and as you progress it keeps getting smaller and smaller until you can only just peer over the top of the deck. How are you supposed to steer if you can’t see forward we wondered? And was the boat really too big and might it get stuck in the narrow section miles underground in an unlit tunnel?
But before we could answer these questions we discovered some poor chap a few years ago had not seen one of the tunnel narrowings and was knocked off the back of the boat. There were others on the boat but they didn’t notice. Was his helming so bad that no-one noticed that he had gone? Should we tie ourselves on? The poor fellow was found eight hours later and unfortunately did not survive the experience.
These days safety has improved and they check the number of people on each boat that goes into the tunnel and then count the boats and people that come out the other end. One might wonder if you had fallen into the almost freezing water, been run over by all the boats behind you, and then waited 20 minutes for your boat to emerge and another 20 for the rescue boat to come searching, that perhaps this was merely a measure to avoid the build up lost souls in the tunnel.
At 8:30am after a sleepless night pondering how a claustrophobic helmsman would manage 40 minutes 1600m under ground in an ever narrowing unlit tunnel, we arrived for our safety briefing. Horn, check, headlight, check, 2.5 people onboard, check. We lined up the second vessel to enter, but exuded such a quiet confidence that we were soon promoted to tunnel leader with some excuse about the other boat having a smelly engine.
The vessel coming south squeezed out of the tunnel entrance and we were on! The tunnel master counted both boats as we entered the tunnel. Trying hard to appear semi competent to onlookers we managed to negotiate the entrance without hitting the wall. As the boat behind us entered, they shut the door behind us and started the large and noisy exhaust fans. Here we go.
The black and white arch shows the tunnel dimensions at its smallest…looks like we will fit!
The tunnel is brick lined with the occasional drip of water dribbling onto the boat. There is no tow path so there is no where to escape the water if you were unfortunate enough to take a dip. They say the air is cold inside, but at this time of year it actually warms up as you progress deeper into the tunnel.
After about 10 minutes the roof gets a little lower. And then a little lower again. This keeps going until you don’t think it can get any lower, and then it gets lower again. The boat does self steer to some extent with the wake reflecting off the tunnel wall and keeping it straight. There are some big chips out of the top and lower edges of the tunnel where it narrows, confirming that it is possible to miss the tunnel. We imagine that hitting the tunnel wall would be followed by a period of quiet consideration of the older parallel tunnel that was closed due to subsidence.
Lower and lower
After about 30 minutes the tunnel expands and the light of the exit door comes into view. Its still 10 minutes away but its presence is somewhat reassuring. The exit is quite difficult to negotiate as you are blinded by the semi daylight of an overcast English winters day and need to avoid a strategically placed work boat right in the tunnel entrance. But the overwhelming pressure to exude calm confidence to tunnel master busy doing his addition, helped us negotiate the tight entrance with a jolly wave and all infrastructure intact.
The final test. Water in this area is orange due to iron rich springs in the area.
All in all it was a unique and fascinating experience. Would we do it again? Well as it happens its our only route south so we will be in for a repeat experience which, we are rather looking forward to…
