Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 30th August, 2024)

A short canal , but very wide !

Oops !
I may be wrong but did he think he was going under that bridge ?
Turning a narrow boat round must be very awkward when there is not much room....still he has a pole .....& as I say I may be wrong & he is just messing about on the river(canal) !

My first thoughts were that it was reminiscent of that ship that blocked the Suez Canal but clearly not,
It looks like he was trying to manoeuvre into the canal basin under the stone bridge but I didn’t think it was usable anymore.
That said the views around the Basin are just beautiful, my favourite spot and very peaceful.
That stretch of canal all the way to Red Rock is just stunning, I have sent a few photos this year taken along that stretch but unfortunately not everything can be accommodated on PAD. So pleased yours did, it is lovely.

Now then Dennis could that be heading for red rock from Haigh Hall bridge.

I presume the boat was turning round and not trying to get under the bridge? I have seen photos on PAD but cannot remember the clearance under the bridge

I think he can get under that bridge.

No winding hole is available to turn around so he's doing it the hard way, what's a winding hole I hear you ask?
A winding hole is a short length of very wide canal, used as a place to turn a boat around, and it is pronounced 'whin-ding'; not 'wine-ding'. It is so named because the wind can be used to help the boat to turn.

I am very sure that a canal barge can't get under the stone bridge. I also believe, only a small rowing boat can get under that stone bridge now.
Also, the depth in areas of the basin isn't suitable for canal barges and I think that the size of the basin, taking into account the vegetation etc., isn't suitable for barges if large enough at all.
I believe, he is using that point of the canal to turn around as the width is greater due to the entrance to the basin.
As kids, my friends and I spent many happy days fishing and swimming in that part of the canal as it wasn't far from where we lived.
I really cannot say how many times I have crossed that stone bridge, but it must be well into the hundreds.
A beautiful part of our district and a beautiful photograph. Thanks! Dennis.

Lovely photo, lovely day. Only just got back from the caravan so been looking at the canal at Gargrave and Skipton for the last few days; good to see our own at Haigh again!

That's a lovely pleasant photo Dennis, you've been getting out and about with this weeks photos.

They were, in fact, turning round, which they managed to do brilliantly after much too-ing and fro-ing.
I think steering a barge is a bit like steering one of those wheelchairs they have at the hospital were the back wheels turn but the front wheels don’t, so you have to steer the front wheels by turning the back wheels.

You have got to be right Ian I’ve never studied if it would be possible to get a canal boat under that bridge but assumed you could with the basin being there but obviously not.Irene it’s a nice place to ride from Skipton to Leeds especially going down the 5 rise locks at Bingley afew miles from Skipton a lovely part of the country.

When starry skies don’t meet the eye
then blue ones can replace it
for just like them they hold a pen
to show us what can be
We cannot fly , though wish may try
so clouds they do it for us
to float one day
on cut we say
I touched a cloud for free …

The pool was for rowing boats to access the boathouse at the far end. We used to call the bridge “the boathouse bridge “

It looks like the stern of the boat is up against the canal bank, and something seems to be going on at that rear end of the boat, so how about if the propeller has got snagged in all that weed, and the boat has stopped, and the force of the water current in the canal as it approaches the top of the Wigan Flight can be very strong if the Flight is in use, you can actually see the water flowing along, so it is possible that the force of the water may have turned the boat around.

Or.

They don't want to go down the Wigan Flight, so they are using the width of the canal at the bridge to just turn the boat around and go back from whence they came.

Ive saw a photo on here some time ago of some canoes on that little pond.