July 22: Portobello to Lock 12

The second day of our journey started early as we needed to meet the people from WI at 8:00 at lock 1. We got up at 6:30, drank a coffee to give us the emotional fortitude for the day, and headed out. Johnny arranged for help, and we met them at the jetty before the lock at 7:45.

Our amazing crew included Irene, who was with us on the first leg of our journey. Joining us for day two, Johnny had recruited Ronnie and her teenage son Eoin. They were a cheerful, interesting and motivated group. We wouldn't have made it through the day without them.

Day two challenged us from the very start. Lock 1 was a double lock and much deeper than any of the locks from day 1. Water cascaded over our fore deck when the sluice gates were opened. Sadly, I had a porthole open up front, and the baby's books got a good bath. At least the decks were clean.

Eoin Hard at Work

Irene Holds the Line

A Moment's Rest

Climbing the Hill out of Dublin

On this day, we traveled 12 locks, three double, and gained more than 45 meters (around 150 feet) of elevation. While this is nothing quite like the Caen Hill locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal in England, where 29 locks in a row rise up 72 meters (236 feet) in a rather short distance, it was quite the climb. A long, straight stretch of the canal allowed us to look back on the progress we had made. One thinks of Dublin as fairly flat save for the mountains to the south, but on this day we definitely noticed the change in elevation as we traveled west out of the city.

We began to encounter problems around lock 7. The engine was running hotter, and we were slowing down. We got through lock 9 before things got really bad. I began to fear the worst. We had been warned numerous times that we needed to get through this part of Dublin quickly, as there were lots of hooligans who loved to throw rocks at boats. Now I imagined the engine being ruined, and having to abandon the boat in this area.

The water intake for the cooling on our engine has a little basket. We checked it and it wasn't really clogged. So, we tried blowing out the intake line. Still the engine was running hotter and hotter. We were crawling along. Johnny worried that the impeller, which pumps the water into the cooling system had been damaged by running dry. So, he opened it up to look. When we determined it was fine, I decided I needed to look at the prop.

So, I quickly changed into my swimsuit and clambered down the ladder at the stern of the boat. The water was cold! After I stopped hyperventilating, I dove down and had a look at the prop. It was basically a large ball of detritus. Over the course of 20 minutes, I pulled plastic, cloth wire and weeds off the prop. I climbed aboard and we set off. We now had thrust and were moving much more quickly. However, the engine was still running much too hot.

Returning from one of my swims

After numerous stops to let the engine cool and try to clear the intake, I decided it was time for another swim. Over the side I went and dove down to find the water intake. Indeed it was clogged with grass, which I cleared over the course of 4 or 5 dives. Now we were running much cooler, and we made good time. I ended up making one more dive to clear both prop and intake, but we actually made it to lock 12 by around 4 in the afternoon.