A Technical Hitch on the Caledonian Canal

 

Looking up Neptune's Staircase at Banavie

We are getting towards the end of our canal adventure but there's been a bit of a problem. We arrived at Banavie basin, above the 8-lock set known as Neptune's Staircase, just after lunch and had the option to join a cohort of boats locking down that afternoon.

Maunie in the foreground

Looking towards Neptune's Staircase and the sea beyond it

Thankfully, as it turned out, we decided that we'd go through the following day so had a relaxed afternoon watching the boats work down the locks.

A multi-cultural group - two Swiss, two Norwegian and a Swedish boat

The process took nearly two hours and all went very smoothly until the bottom lock. The lock gates opened, the road traffic stopped but the swing bridge decided not to swing. Alarms sounded as the hydraulic system overloaded and tripped out, leaving the boats trapped while the lock keepers tried to get the bridge to move. After about 15 minutes they managed to get the hydraulic jacks that support the roadway back into the locked position to allow cars to cross but it was clear that the boats were going nowhere, even though they were so tantalisingly close to the exit to the canal.

Looking past the road and rail bridges to the Corpach sea lock.

With the engineer having to drive up from Glasgow (and no guarantee that he'd be able to fix the fault quickly), the lock keepers told the crews that unfortunately they would have to go back the way they had come. Apparently it's not safe to leave boats in the lock chambers overnight due to the turbulent water that has to flow through them continuously when not in use. Meanwhile the keepers had to juggle with the sluice gates as the delayed exit meant that water started to pour over the top of the lock gate above the boats.

So the poor yachts had to reverse up, lock by lock, at a much slower pace - the incoming water buffeted the rudders of the upstream boats so the sluices had to be opened an inch at a time. It took almost four hours to get back to the upper canal. The crews were remarkably good humoured about it all and the lock keepers did a great job, so there was no damage to the yachts.

The good news is that the bridge has now been repaired so boats will be able to move today. We'll wait to see what that means for our own timings to head west to return to salt water.