A grand weekend

 March 24th

It was a brilliant weekend. 10 boats turned up, most above lock but some below. That sunken cruiser on the lock landing caused a few problems, it would be lovely if CRT could pull their finger out and get it removed. 7 months lying on the bottom is quite long enough, thank you very much! Anyway, Friday's boaters game night was a huge success, and a fair amount of beer was drunk on that evening! 

Saturday, the numbers swelled. 4 live bands kept us entertained to almost midnight. The Pie, Peas, Gravy and Mint sauce arrived mid-evening, supplied by Mrs B's catering company, stopping the music for a short while, Shirley, and I was kept busy dishing them out. This, we hope, could once more become an annual event, it was pre Covid, six years ago, when the last Pie and Pea took place. Everyone at the 'DO' agreed we should do it more often.

 

Two tubs at the back full of mushy peas and gravy. 

 Most of us went to bed slightly tipsy, it was a good job the boats were nearby!

 

Sunday morning boaters left to start their cruising season, unfortunately we were not amongst them. It was back to Langley Mill for us. We did have locking buddies, Canada Dave and wife Mel (yes, you guessed correct, both are Canadians). They joined ECP&DA about a year ago and have been regulars at our work parties on a Friday. One job Dave helped with was the post repair on the lock gate at Sandiacre. A good quick solution to a job that CRT couldn't carry out immediately. 

Leaving for Langley

The whole trip back up took about 5 hours and that's good going considering all the locks were against, several times the boat hook had to come out to remove debris and branches from behind the gates and tackling the awful leaking Greens Lock.

At said Greens Lock Ian and Mel struggled to get the bottom gate open, Ian lost his footing and felt his knee go ...what a B....and just when he thought it was getting better! Back to a hobbling gait again. Of course going up we didn't have the same problems with being pinned to the wall, just the getting through the top gates, both of which could only be opened a fraction. Dave went out first, managing not to scrap the side of his lovely new and shiny boat, well Ian did lean hard against the gate to give him more room.

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That's all the gap we had

We did just about remember to warn Dave of that sunken boat after Gallows Inn, unfortunately he still somehow managed to hit it, which brought it up to the surface making it easier for us to see and avoid. 

Jim (Dire Straits) had Langley Bridge Lock open and waiting. He gave us the low down on Jenns eye operation to fix the displaced retina and very relieved that all went well. She is now confined to lying on her back for the next 10 days, only allowed 20 minutes in every hour to be able to sit up, eat and go to the toilet. 

So that's it for the foreseeable future. Next outing will be in the motorhome in May and that is a European holiday driving to Pompeii.

And seen on route