Locks, Locks and more Locks!

Day four and we are confronted with a massive staircase of locks. A total of 21 in all. We had moored overnight at the bottom of the first one and decided to wait for someone to come along so we could not only share the work, but also conserve water as it is becoming scarce. We were almost ready to leave when an old work boat passed us and entered the first lock. We gathered ourselves and cast off and caught him in the second lock. I can tell you that by lock 21 Sue, in particular was extremely pleased we did meet up with Nick in his old barge.

Look at all those locks!

It turned out that Nick was an Iraq veteran so Sue warmed to him straight away and they exchanged many stories including the delights of Camel Spiders. Thankfully I don't have any photos. We also picked up a few trick on how to work the locks more efficiently.

Index Board

Here is a quick explanation of everything to do with canals, should you ever need to know!

Near the top of Hatton Flight is Old Hatton Yard. A British Waterways preserved building with a vintage BW Van parked outside. Nick told us that BW pay for a gardener to water the plants and do a bit of weeding but don't do anything to preserve the van. Not even wash it! I could only see 4 plant pots!!!

We also went through yet another tunnel. Shrewley Tunnel, only 433 yards long. A long bridge really compared to our tunnel experiences so far, though we were followed by an old tub which was in a rush and so after exiting we pulled over to let it pass. We think the Captain and 1st Mate were probably a little inebriated as after overtaking they suddenly cut right across our bow making contact. No damage though, thanks to our rubber fenders.

Here is Sue still smiling after working the Hatton Flight.

and here are her hands at the end of the day. Bruised and battered.

We sailed away from Hatton Top Lock leaving Nick to eat his freshly cooked breakfast from the cafe there. He deserved it as he had worked so hard along with Sue to get us through the 21 locks. He must have walked miles that day because once both our boats were in a lock he would leave it to us to shut the paddles and wait for the lock to fill as he went to the next set of gates to open them so we could sail straight in.

We cruised on up the Grand Union Canal whilst he turned off up the Stratford Arm. It wasn't too long before we approached more locks at Knowle. The canal was very quiet and didn't see another boat for miles. Sue couldn't face winding another lock paddle that day, and who could blame her so we moored up for the night.

The next morning, as no other boat seemed to have the intention of proceeding through he locks, we decided to go it alone. These 7 locks at Knowle turned out to be the last double width locks that we would pass through before the narrow ones that approach Birmingham.

Knowle Lock 6

These were quite deep and we climbed a fair height then just as I pulled out of the top lock a terrifying noise came from the propeller. Due to the sound it made I thought we were about to lose it. I threw Sue a rope and she pulled Tempranillo to the bank and I then had to plunge my arm into the freezing cold water of the grass box to extract the offending piece of wood that caused the noise. Fortunately no damage was done and we were able to continue cruising.

The next challenge was to be the single width series of locks at Solihull as we approached the outskirts of Birmingham.