How lucky is Robbie Cummings*? He was just emerging from the front of his boat, the Naughty Lass as we passed him at the northern Braunston moorings. Here nearly missed us and that would have spoiled his day. He and Kath exchanged cheery waves and we continued our merry way to Bridge 85 on the North Oxford which is where I’m now sitting. Not on the bridge, need I say, just near the bridge. Have some sense!
As promised we made an early (for us) start to avoid the heat, and by 8am we were through Calcutt locks.
Interesting thing here. Sometime ago we were watching instructors from the Willow Wren school showing trainees how best to operate these locks (and all those like them on the northern Grand Union). Their technique when ascending these locks is to open the top paddle on the same side as the boat just 5 or 6 turns, wait a couple of minutes while the boat settles against the wall, which it will, then steadily open the remaining 15 or so turns. Remarkably for such large and quick filling locks the boat sits nice and steady with no need for a rope. It works! All very serene and reasonably quick using just the one paddle. Don’t try this on other types of double width locks folks, the boat’ll be all over the place if you’re not careful. You also need judicious use of the gate paddle on other Grand Union Locks - despite what CRT tells is trainee lock volunteers
After a quick stop at Midland Chandlers for a can of oil (£44!!!) and a filter, we arrived here at bridge 45 at about 11am. No more moving today, it’s too flippin’ hot. En route, we passed this cheery gentleman with a novel approach to canal relaxation. I hope he’s careful when he gets out.
So after a simple but tasty lunch consisting of Melton Mowbray Pork pie, a French stick, tomatoes and Tracklements’ “Peculiarly British Piccalilli”, I may turn my attention to redesigning the little mobile phone rest which we use to rest the phone up to the boat window to get a better signal. The mark one version has done sterling sevice but the design has its flaws .
Tomorrow we hope to dine or lunch at Badsey’s Cafe at Hillmorton. Interestingly their converted historic working boat “Badsey” which sits outside the cafe is up for sale. It’s a good ‘un. Despite me being born and raised in the village of Badsey, I shall sadly not be putting in a bid.
Just as I finished typing this, Kath’s mobile fell off the mark one phone rest. Nuff said.
*For any reader who don’t know who Robbie Cummings is, he does a TV series about life as a continuous cruiser on the canals. Worth a watch, as for once he does it ‘warts and all.’
2 comments:
When tackling most wide locks (on our own) we open the near side ground paddle and then the offside gate paddle. Both work to keep the boat against the side of the lock and as you say, a rope isn’t required. Great when a plan really works!
Mike
Nb Duxllandyn
Yes that's the way to do it where there are gate paddles, although the volunteer lockies don't understand and can get uppity about opening gate paddles before they are under water. On these northern GU locks though, there are no gate paddles, hence the technique I mentioned.
Neil
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