Lack of water

 Oct 19th

Touch and go this morning whether we went up the flight. Oh we were all ready to go, tiller on and engine about to be fired into life when a chap walked past and mentioned very low pounds in all of the 6 pounds! If fact he told us not to bother, it would be hours before the pounds would be full enough for a boat to travel through. Okay, we would wait until after lunch and see what the state of play was. In fact, we didn't have to wait long at all because that same chap came back to us about 30 minutes later and said most of the pounds now had sufficient water for us to proceed. 

So up those 6 locks staying well to the middle because most pounds were still down over a foot. Every lock was full bar one and that was because a pair of boats were met at the middle lock on their way down.

 

The Wendover Arm junction was immediately after the top lock. A right pig to get around but I persuaded Ian to open both gates to make my life easier. Even so it took several reverses before the bow was pointed at the entrance. 

Passing the helm duties over to Ian I went inside for a sit down. That walk yesterday had really stuffed up my knee. Last night I could hardly walk so out came the painkillers and Ibuprofen gel. I think Toffee will be going out with just Ian for a few days! Anyway having got settled suddenly the mother of all rain showers hit us. Not just a mizzle, no it was a deluge. Thankfully a mooring came into view and it was anchors on, pull in, grab ropes and piling pins and tie as best we could before making a dive for cover. 

 

We stayed over an hour, had lunch and once the sun made a weak appearance off we went again. The canal was like a ditch, single width only because reeds and grasses and encroached on both sides and boy very shallow. By the time the canal will have been reinstated to Wendover, I envisage that no boats will be able to travel along this section anyway! It was really slow-going and God help us if another boat was met.

 Once the winding hole appeared the depth increased, we winded and stopped on a 48-hour mooring. Ian then went to walk to see what progress had been made by the restoration trust, quite a lot since our last visit in the Covid year of 2020. 

 There is another storm on its way and this time I don't think we will be lucky enough to miss it. So a discussion last night and we are going to high tail it back to The Plough at Simpson for Thursday. It's also a great place for Toffee to be collected from and son and daughter-in-law can treat us to a meal!

And now for the restoration photos 

In 2020

 

 

and today