Off Again At Last

Thursday 27th and Friday 28th August, 2015 in Mirfield.
We had a very happy few days back home, during which time we managed to see all eight grandchildren and all the children with the exception of David in Salt Lake City!
It was a long journey back to Dewsbury by train (three different trains in all) but thankfully without delays and we arrived back on MM in Savile Basin at teatime. As ever, it was lovely to be back.
Next morning, it was a joy to wake up to full sun after all the torrential rain down south. As we were still in the marina and hooked up to mains electricity, M did a wash and pegged it out to dry. Meanwhile, we walked up to the local Asda for a "few bits". M remarked how cheap the milk was at Asda, but R pointed out that those low prices unfortunately are at the expense of the struggling dairy farmers.
The washing dried beautifully by lunchtime and, having settled up with the marina, we set off. It was extremely tight getting out of our mooring space but, luckily, we had help from the owner of the boat next door.

The turn from the Dewsbury arm to the lock going west is very tight and as R was negotiating it, he found a wide beam boat already approaching the lock.

It turned out to be a charity boat giving trips to elderly and special needs people, so, in a charitable spirit, we let them go through the lock first and helped them through. They, in turn, helped us through the pair of locks, together with nb "Wot-Ever Next" with whom we had paired up.
This high bridge was very reminiscent of those on the "Shroppie".

At Greenwood Lock, we had gone ahead of the wide beam, which was travelling very slowly, to set the lock for them - but when we got to the lock, there was no place to moor up, only a very small platform to drop someone off.  So R dropped M off to set the lock and then circled round to let the wide beam through and then hovered in the middle of the river with Wot-Ever Next behind.

These locks are only 57ft 6in long and, as MM is 60ft long, we have to enter the lock with one gate open and one gate closed and then tuck in behind the closed gate. It takes some manoevring!

This worked fine most of the time, but one lock was so short that even Wot-Ever Next couldn't get in beside us and close the gate on his side; he was just too long (even though he was supposed to be 57ft) and so had to back out and come back through after us on his own. Paul, the skipper, had removed his front fender and lifted it up on to his front deck, effectively making his boat shorter (which still didn't work). The paddles had to be opened very slowly as the water flows were fierce!

Eventually, however, we both made it through and moored up next to each other in Mirfield for the night.

Today: 4 miles, 4 locks and 3.5 hours.
Trip: 269 miles, 162 locks and 171.3 hours.