Busy Days

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Norton Junction »

Our progress through Leicester was swift and without bother from the vandals other boaters have reported and we moored at Kilby Bridge, considered by many to be a safe haven.

We almost caught up with a boat after a couple of locks and we were hoping to share the remaining locks with them but they moored up and we cruised past them – not knowing at the time that they had a broken throttle cable, awaiting the arrival of River Canal Rescue.

It was hard working all the wide locks on our own.  They are all slightly different and the best order to open the paddles to avoid pushing our boat around seemed different at each lock.

It was just plain hard work holding the boat with the centre rope in each lock until we reached Double Rail Lock – neither side of the lock had centre bollards.  There were three on each side but two were close to each other at the bottom of the lock and no use to us.  Rather surprising after the recent fuss about centre bollards.

We moored at Kilby Bridge and were bothered by children on bikes trying to set the BW workboats adrift, until they realised we were filming them.

Then they cycled up and down the towpath shouting a lot and swinging tennis rackets at anyone who stuck their head out.  Once again they disappeared when we started filming them.

Aquaholix, the boat we passed in Leicester moored behind us, and we heard about the broken throttle cable from Mike and Debbie Gunn

We planned to cruise together through the rest of the broad locks which was fine until we reached Bumblebee Lock, the first lock of the day.  All four gates were shut and all four paddles down but the pound above the lock was completely drained.  After reporting the problem to BW and walking the pound to check for a breach we had to open both sets of paddles at the next three locks to get enough water to refill the pound.  As I walked the pound I was surprised to see no sign of any fish, or any rubbish or any other disturbance.

The rest of the day was great, with our new found friends Mike & Debbie Gunn on Aquaholix sharing the locks and the work.  They were very co-operative when asked to go first or second between the locks and to use a particular side of the lock so it kept consistency in our filming.  If only they were available every time we meet broad locks.

We made it to Foxton, and we’ve filmed the Market Harborough Arm, so all we need is sunshine tomorrow morning for us to head up the staircase.

This will be the highlight of our Leicester Ring DVD so sunshine is essential – and before 12:30 so it’s on the correct side of the boat for filming.

After that we just hope the repairs to Watford Locks which shut them today have been finished.

Posted on Tuesday, 20 July 2010 at 20:29        Comments (2)

 

Comments »

1. Glad Leicester treated you well but what a pain at Kilby and beyond, and that empty pound is a mystery to us, never seen it there before. Sorry we weren’t around to ease the agony of refilling. The summit should be a pleasure. Where next, are you coming west? Mo

   Comment by Mo — On 23-07-10 at 11:04

2. Mo: Thanks for your sympathy – you would have had to work very hard to beat the help we had from Mike and Debbie.

   Comment by Paul — On 25-07-10 at 20:02

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Category(s): Leicester Section