If youre nifty with the knots and have a rudimentary sense of basic geometry youll be alright when tying on in and outside of locks.
Myself and Dara eventually come to terms with the ends of the boat creating two points of a triangle, the third being wherever we could cast a rope, but our new sense of security was walked the plank along with Dara when we had a spot o bother on a windy day outside a lock just past Liege.
The problem was the lock fixtures had corroded and all that was left was a rusty cable considerately knotted on to an aged bollard a meter above my head. Dara was relying on me holding the ropes tight but I momentarilly loosened the vital one to improve the tie, and in he went. luckily there was no big brutes thundering by making waves in the minute it took Dara to scramble and heave himself back on deck.
The wash from one of the commercial barges can send your cups flying, and they have little mercy when appoching the Belgium locks because those locks are often only big enough for one big boat and the race is to the swift. This situation is worsened by the manners of the Belgian cargo handlers. Their Dutch counterparts politely tie up tight to one side of the lock so another boat can go along side, but when we went to do that, dara still dripping lock water, we were screaamed at and a young lad on the deck smacked his hands together to show us what would happen to us if we dared snuggle up to him and by jaysus was he right.. they seemed to be using a solitary bungee strap and when the water gushed in the lock, their boat took the middle like a bully in a sandpit. We would have been canal kill.
Myself and Dara eventually come to terms with the ends of the boat creating two points of a triangle, the third being wherever we could cast a rope, but our new sense of security was walked the plank along with Dara when we had a spot o bother on a windy day outside a lock just past Liege.
The problem was the lock fixtures had corroded and all that was left was a rusty cable considerately knotted on to an aged bollard a meter above my head. Dara was relying on me holding the ropes tight but I momentarilly loosened the vital one to improve the tie, and in he went. luckily there was no big brutes thundering by making waves in the minute it took Dara to scramble and heave himself back on deck.
The wash from one of the commercial barges can send your cups flying, and they have little mercy when appoching the Belgium locks because those locks are often only big enough for one big boat and the race is to the swift. This situation is worsened by the manners of the Belgian cargo handlers. Their Dutch counterparts politely tie up tight to one side of the lock so another boat can go along side, but when we went to do that, dara still dripping lock water, we were screaamed at and a young lad on the deck smacked his hands together to show us what would happen to us if we dared snuggle up to him and by jaysus was he right.. they seemed to be using a solitary bungee strap and when the water gushed in the lock, their boat took the middle like a bully in a sandpit. We would have been canal kill.
Posted by Dawn
1 comment:
howay de lads!
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