After the heat and the rain of the previous two days, today was ideal boating weather, dry and sunny without excessive heat. After shopping first thing for supplies for the next four days in Brighouse we set off with Rebecca up the Calder & Hebble reaching Sowerby Bridge at 6 pm after travelling 7 miles and 10 locks.

The journey was very hard work because of the locks. Getting into each lock was not easy as Rebecca is 60 foot long, rather longer than the locks were designed to handle. The procedure for each lock was for Rebecca to enter first on one side of the lock. Rebecca was too long for the lock gate to be closed behind her. So, the opposite bottom lock gate was closed and Rebecca moved sideways behind it. We could then drive Densie into the vacated space and with luck the lock gate could be closed behind us. If this was not possible the two boats had to be taken through the locks separately.

Having got the boats into the lock, filling the lock often required major effort. Here the infamous Calder spikes came into use. It is inserted into a slot in a wheel and used to lever the wheel around to turn a gear wheel which engages with a rack and so raises the paddle gate. However great physical force is normally required to move the spike, in some cases the combined efforts of two sweaty wives (of course the men were driving the boats).

Despite the hard work this was a really enjoyable journey. The hills are getting higher and the Calder valley sides are closing in as the canal ascends through woodland and past renovated and not so renovated victorian industrial buildings.