Lack of water causes a dillema.

Away at 6.30am today, not quite as stupid a time as yesterday and it was me who drew the short straw to do the lock duties on the Buckby flight. Actually, I insisted because ever since that fall Ian had at the basin he has suffered a lot with his right shoulder. He's a right junkie in my book at the moment because of all the pill-popping and to finally agree (and it must be bad for him to do that) to go to the walk-in centre at Milton Keynes to have it checked means it must hurt a lot!

Silently away again

Am I out of condition or what?? Are the lock gates and paddles getting heavier or I have grown soft. Ian said all the GU locks are a pain so I don't feel quite so bad. Between lock 9 and 10, the water situation was dire. Several feet down I wondered if FS would get stuck. This is a longish pound and it would need several lock fulls of water run down to bring the levels up. And to add insult to injury, this lock was empty when all the others had been full! So yet more water taken from the pound and at one point a loud blast on FS's horn alerted me to Ian's plight. Yep, he was stuck! Now for the dilemma. Do I (a) close the paddles, race back to lock 9 and run more water down or do I (b) leave lock 10 to fill, open the top gate in readiness for FS to enter once mobile again and then race back to lock 9 to run down water? The obvious answer would be to close the paddles but....and here is why I hesitated....so much water was peeing out of the bottom gates that to close those paddles I would loose what water had already filled the lock and the whole process would have to start again. As it turned out Ian managed to get free by literally surfing on the mud with as many revs as he could manage! So I was very glad I had acted on (b) but without having to race back to lock 9.

Plenty of revs and FS slowly moved forward.

Peeing out from the bottom gate!

 By lock 12 a C&RT volunteer had arrived. Ian had a long chat and asked if the Long Buckby flight was due for an outage this winter. The answer was no so I expect the water loss will continue until the gates can be replaced. At least with a volunteer on hand that pound would be topped up.

That's the volunteer on the gate.

It's a sure sign we are on the GU because the wide beams or fat boats are now very much in evidence. Is it me or are they getting wider? Some at 12ft  just about fit through the bridge 'ole. And talk about some weird and wonderful designs as well!

 This will upset some cyclists! They will have to slow down and dismount! Looked to be a recent fall too.

And I wonder how long they have been waiting for a lift!

 Today's mooring

Had many a critter land on FS today.

:
From no wildlife yesterday to plenty today.

 

Starlings

Mum and youngster?

Tried the burst mode on the camera. Quite pleased with the outcome.