Missed the turning on the way back to the boat, via Stoke Wharf, but hey, we were in no hurry, and Richard was towing the trailer not me! He had sore legs when we got back.
Scooby frightened us to death when he opted to skydive through the open side hatch, rather than walk to the bow and walk in normally. He landed on his chin somehow and calmly went back to bed! How he didn't properly break his legs, I have no idea!
Later on we decided to walk up the flight and perhaps do some magnetic fishing on the way! The flight is around 2 miles in length but very gentle in gradient, but by the time we got back, we were absolutely knacked!
The weather forecast was for a fine day, so we got up at silly o' clock and were on our way for 6.30am! Armed with egg sandwiches and a hot flask, we made our steady ascent...
This hook was on most of the lock entrances, just above the steps and was a really useful way to stop the butty once the line had been taken off the stern of the big boat. We have no idea if we are doing this correctly, so feel free to comment if there is an easier way!
Here you can see the butty slowed by the hook, after the gates have been closed with the motor in the lock. When in roughly the right position, we tied the butty to the bollard from over the gates, so that opening the gates to let it in, pulls the rope and hence, the butty.
If the gates were really leaky, the hook was used to tie the butty back from the gate, giving room for the water! As the lock drains, the force propels the waiting boat backward and then right up to the gate, so draining needs to be done slowly at first.
Once the butty is moving it is fairly easy to pull it into the lock.
We then fill the lock taking care that the water does not snatch the butty forward, so it hits the gate. We tie the bow line onto the motor (this sits in the mouth of the lock tied to the white bollard on the gate whilst locks is being filled - above) and the pull of the motor, pulls the gate open, easy when you have done a few!
As a result, apparently of someone leaving a paddle open above us, we grounded in a very shallow lock, near to the top of the flight. Here you can see 2 old work boats, revealed by the low water, somewhat preserved in the silt.
Wooden boat with and old joey steel boat behind.
We sat in the pound for nearly an hour, as the BW locky frantically filled each lock above us to let water down. The boat behind us and the following BW workboat past around us as we sat drinking tea, waiting for a bit more water than they needed as we had to do each lock twice, and our draft on the motor.
View from the second to top lock yehhey!
View from the same lock forward to the old pump house, now a private residence. We hope to moor here, but the rings were not in the right places for both boats, so we moored around the corner on the official Tardebigge moorings. I can't remember much else, it is all a blur, suffice to say, every muscle in our bodies is still sore the next day, as if we had run a full marathon!
This morning we completed the flight by rising up the deep 14 feet top lock before the water point.
In summary, we had done the flight, but we had also done it twice because of the butty, so 9 hours had taken us through 58 locks.......
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