Just letting a paddle drop can cause damage!

Atherstone Town moorings, great for pub and shops, but not great for wanting a decent night of sleep. Bit of road noise, okay our fault for mooring so near to the bridge, but this was the only stretch that had any sort of decent towpath surface, the rest being a muddy path. Then the Cockrell!!! We knew about him and previously swore never to moor near to it again, but see previous paragraph as to why we did. Then the trains! Only a small paddock separated the line from the canal, and last night it seemed for all the world that the goods trains were running continually! Needless to say, a disturbed night was our lot.

Ian took Toffee for her walk this morning and met a boater who had just descended the 5 locks. Gosh, they must have set off early 'cos it was 8ish when Ian stepped off FS. He stopped for a chat and Ian was amazed that he was known, That boaters name was John and boat name...Free Spirit. What a great name for a boat, don't you think? Anyway, they knew of us because of the blog, and he mentioned that he had seen us at Great Hayward last year. I wish I had a memory because I don't recall the meeting, but at least Ian got to say hello today.

Shopping done and the morning half over, we got underway about 10ish. 

Lucky again on the first lock because a boat had just exited. And a volunteer lockie had seen them down every one and would now help us to ascend the last 5. But there was a reason for this, a problem had arisen at lock 4.

Lock 4

 

The problem was the rack on the paddle gear was missing. How that had happened can only be deduced, but the theory was someone had let the paddle drop instead of winding it down, and consequently the bolt holding the rack to the spear rod had broken. According to the volunteer, all the paddle gear on the flight were working perfectly when they left yesterday, so it must have happened sometime late evening. The amount of water leaking through the paddle culvert suggested the paddle had also been damaged.  I took a photo looking down the post, a bit grainy, but the spear rod can plainly be seen.

 

  There may be a stoppage on the cards, the maintenance crew were on their way, so good job we didn't leave it any later to get away. Of course, because of the leakage, the pound was down by a considerable amount. FS did a bit of dredging trying to get into the next lock, and I did wonder if I would actually make it. Still, had I got stuck, there were plenty of volunteers on duty to get me going again. 

At lock 3, I asked the volunteer if he would like us to drop out the lock after we had left, to help raise the water levels, seeing as another boat was coming up behind. He quickly looked around and decided to head back down, but before he went, he replied to my question. "I wouldn't bother", said he, "This lock is leaking like a sieve through the gate, it will empty as quick as if a paddle had been raised!

 

No water running over the bywash

 We still had help on the last two locks, Quite a few volunteers on today, something to do with Easter perhaps? 😉

By midday, lovely rural moorings came into view, no Cockrell, no road noise, no trains just blissful peace and quiet. The warmth of the afternoon sun was enough to see us getting the chairs out and enjoying a larger shandy.

 

And seen buzzing us overhead, well, it is an aircraft I grant you, but what sort???

 A thank you from George and Carol who thinks it is a Douglas C-47 Skytrain. Another comment from Paul who said it was an Avro Anson. It’s now privately owned with registration G-VROE but began life as an RAF trainer in the early 1950s with serial WD413 and that is what it is now painted up as.

 

 

And wildlife

Small White?

Hen pheasants