Doing a spot of dredging

Anchor bridge to Langley Bridge lock is roughly half a mile. With 80 plus boats booked in for the rally (9 trades boats, 19 historics and the rest private) Ian and I decided to check the depth of the moorings along the length. And we were in for a bit of a shock. Most of the length was either silted or had reeds growing in the margins. Ian as harbourmaster has to allocate suitable moorings for the trade boats, they need to get right into the side so today we decided to take FS for a little jaunt down the canal. With me hugging the bank and with lots of forward and reverse, and while Ian started on some of the reeds, we managed to make a bit of headway enough so far to get at least 5 boats into the side. The task at hand is enormous, much too big for just the two of us to cope with so at the next rally meeting we are hoping to get some help. As for asking C&RT, they have already told us they won't be able to bring a dredger up. So go it along we must as it has to be right for May. We know that some historics and private boats will have to use boarding planks but if we can get to a foot of the side for them then success will have been achieved. I think we may well be very busy in the next month.