calder and hebble - Mirfield to Stanley Ferry

[SamKingfisher]

Hiya. Who knows the state of the C&H flood locks at the mo? Going downstream but borderline underpowered Springer.

 

Cheers

[majorminor]

I'd contact CRT. The last message they posted said they were all closed until today

[DaveP]

Wakefield's closed atm, river below Fall Ings lock is in the red.

[SamKingfisher]

Ok will stay put. Cheers..

[SamKingfisher]

Any chance tomorrow do you think?

[Mac of Cygnet]

Any chance tomorrow do you think?

 

Well the Calder drops quite quickly, usually within 24 hours with no rain in the hills, but the Aire takes longer, and with more gales and rain forecast for Monday I wouldn't be too optimistic.

 

Edited to say I just noticed you're only going as far as Stanley Ferry, so only the Calder to consider. But it is quite likely the flood gates will remain closed as more rain is forecast.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Mac of Cygnet

[DaveP]

Wakefield is now open and the Calder at Fall Ings is Amber (it's dropped about a foot). But given the forecast for the next couple of days.....

Edited December 29, 2013 by DaveP

[SamKingfisher]

Cheers. What a lovely forecast!

[SamKingfisher]

So do you think tomorrow (Tuesday) is a goer for this?

 

Cheers

[DaveP]

Looks good in Wakey - gates are open, river is only just in amber. Three boats came up from Stanley today.

[SamKingfisher]

Cheers - safely at Stanley Ferry. Don't reckon we'll be tackling the Aire for a bit given the forecast!

[Robbo]

Cheers - safely at Stanley Ferry. Don't reckon we'll be tackling the Aire for a bit given the forecast!

Where you heading? It's only river to Lemonroyd or ferry bridge (give or take castleford cut!) the rest is canal apart from the last bit to Leeds which is around a 10 min trip. It's quite normal now so usual flow.

 

Tip do the river section either early morning when the sun coming up or late when the sun going down for nothing more than the right light for the views and feeling.

[SamKingfisher]

Hi Robbo

 

It's Ellie's boat which is a 3 cylinder mitsu on a tiny egg whisk . . . That's why we're leery of the aire. It makes perhaps 5mph flat out - I don't know what the flow of the aire is after rain.

 

It's coming back up to Shipley area, or to Dobson until the works are completed at Calverley.

 

Sam

[Guest]

Hi Robbo

 

It's Ellie's boat which is a 3 cylinder mitsu on a tiny egg whisk . . . That's why we're leery of the aire. It makes perhaps 5mph flat out - I don't know what the flow of the aire is after rain.

 

It's coming back up to Shipley area, or to Dobson until the works are completed at Calverley.

 

Sam

 

The Aire can get quite a flow on after lot's of heavy rain. I recall puching our way back to Lemonroyd once with our boat with an Isuzu 42 after breaking out of Castleford Cut where we had been hemmed in by floods for a good few days.

 

The additional revs. required was noticeable though of course it was actually no problem for our boat. It does normally subside very quickly so although you would possibly OK you might want to wait for a dryer spell. It becomes benign quite quickly again from my experience.

[Robbo]

Hi Robbo

 

It's Ellie's boat which is a 3 cylinder mitsu on a tiny egg whisk . . . That's why we're leery of the aire. It makes perhaps 5mph flat out - I don't know what the flow of the aire is after rain.

 

It's coming back up to Shipley area, or to Dobson until the works are completed at Calverley.

 

Sam

 

To be honest it was flashing red this morning, but the Aire does die down pretty quickly and between Stanley Ferry to Lemonroyd it's a pretty wide and open so the flow (even when touching red) isn't anything to right home about - I go by this by more than anything. My other boat is a 13hp 3 ton boat, but I came from Castleford Flood Lock which was closed to Lemonroyd in November- it is easy to gauge the flow there tho.

 

Looking at XCWeather and http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120699.aspx?stationId=8061 it prop right to hold back at the moment, 85cm is roughly when they start to shut the gates at Knotsrope. Not sure about Castleford.

[SamKingfisher]

Cheers.

 

Ellie tells me not to be mean about her engine as apparently in a tug of war it once pulled a budgie completely off its perch.

 

And you don't see many birds riding freshwater fish!

 

Edit cos she had last laugh at my punctuation error . . .

Edited January 23, 2014 by SamKingfisher

[Robbo]

Hello,

 

Just to let you know Knotsrope Flood Lock (and Clarence Dock) got shut this afternoon...

[SamKingfisher]

Looking at forecast Tuesday looks plausible - boat now pretty close to Castleford. Very unchuffed to get a patrol notice at Mirfield - yes we could have taken an afternoon off work to move it a few hundred yards closer to the river but a bit of slack would have been nice.

[DaveP]

I'd challenge it; The flood locks were closed for almost (edited for spilling) three weeks from before the new year. The website doesn't seem hold the expired notices but from my mail feed;

 

30 Dec-17 Jan - Brighouse to Wakefield closed

(email issued 11:21 17 Jan saying gates will open but may take 4 hours - thus not fully open until dusk)

 

22 Jan - 25 Jan - Brighouse to Mirfield closed

25 Jan - Brighouse to Legard closed

26 Jan current - Brighouse to Wakefield closed (Update was promised for yesterday but no email received).

 

Given you left Mirfield on 21st Jan and movement was only possible from the 18th, I'd be righteously miffed - unless you'd been sitting there since before Dec 15th (or earlier if the locks were shut - my mailbin only goes back a month)

 

--

Dave

Edited February 1, 2014 by DaveP

[SamKingfisher]

Ellie did call the officer but she never called back (twice).

 

So she burnt the notice in a strop.

 

Edit - everyone needs the new clean burning Morso Strop stove.

Edited February 2, 2014 by SamKingfisher

[Robbo]

Ellie did call the officer but she never called back (twice).

 

So she burnt the notice in a strop.

 

Edit - everyone needs the new clean burning Morso Strop stove.

 

Write a letter of complaint and pop it into ferns wharf when you pass.

 

BTW. The flood gates at Knotsrop cut are still closed.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Robbo

[SamKingfisher]

Is it ever going to stop raining? Will we ever be able to get her to granary wharf??

 

Anyone got a RIB with a massive engine in Castlefield . . . .

[RichardH]

This case highlights one of the reasons we gave up on the one way boat from Barnoldswick to Hebden Bridge - in 2012 (another year of much rain) it only made the journey successfully once!

[Robbo]

Is it ever going to stop raining? Will we ever be able to get her to granary wharf??

 

Anyone got a RIB with a massive engine in Castlefield . . . .

 

Looking at the weather forecast, my guess is you will waiting for a while!

[SamKingfisher]

And the worst thing is that last time we visited the boat it had been colonised by pairs of animals!