Even though I’ve been
having a few walks around Warwick this week, there is very little to report
that I haven’t covered in blog entries previously. We stayed here for a couple of weeks in
January 2017 and again in July and blog entries from then contain enough to
keep my memory going.
It’s been nice and sunny
this week, so I’ve only had to run the engine to get hot water. The trouble is, is that I sometimes almost forget
that the engine hasn’t been on all day and so there won’t be hot water for
morning showers. I hate to imagine Karen’s
reaction if she got in the shower at 5.30 on a work morning to find no hot
water ☹
Talking about Karen,
reminds me that she has been walking to and from work each day. At two miles, her
office is further away than when we moor in Leamington, but she finds it a
pleasant change from driving.
Although the Hatton flight
officially closed on Monday, boats could still get through if they knew the
locks were still open. Every day there
are plenty of workers at the locks that will be repaired but they seem to be
spending their time unloading all the equipment from barges rather than
shutting the locks up.
On Thursday morning a pontoon
with new lock gates was brought down the flight. The lock gates are clearly marked for lock 27
which is the lock above the lock we are moored at.
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New lock gates having just
emerged from lock number 28
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Lads were dragging another
pontoon into the lock. This pontoon was
carrying a caterpillar tracked crane.
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Once the crane was through
the lock it was reunited with the lock gates and off they chugged to lock
27. The combined length was far more
than the 80’ or so that can be accommodated in the locks on this flight which
is why they had to go through the locks separately.
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Apparently, it had taken
them over six hours to bring the outfit down the flight
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These gates had been made
at the CRT workshops at Bradley near Wolverhampton. There are just two workshops left in the
country now and they make nearly 200 gates a year between them. They are still made of oak and last on
average 25 years.
There is still a lock
cottage at the bottom lock where we are moored and its only access is down the
towpath or across the lock. It was sold
last year and is now rented to a pleasant couple who cross the lock gates each
morning to get to their cars to drive to work.
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The bottom lock cottage –
would be ideal were it not for its closeness to the A46
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Attached to the cottage
are a couple of outhouses. One of them
is for boaters’ use and has a toilet and sink in it. If we do get badly iced in and not able to
move, then it will be an ideal place to fill water carriers as it shouldn’t
freeze like the outdoor water points.
The other outhouse is a
kitchenette for the CRT workers and it does seem to be rather full a lot this
week. There’s only really room for two
or three people but they seem to be really cramming them all in 😉
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Door on left for boaters;
door on right is workers’ kitchen
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Later on in the afternoon
I had a wander back up to see how the works had been progressing. The crane had been positioned over the lock
with its pontoon left in the lock chamber.
This is so the old lock gates can be lifted out and then laid on the pontoon
to be towed away. The new gates had been
taken through the lock on their pontoon and were positioned ready for lifting
up and dropping into place.
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Crane positioned over the
lock with its pontoon below
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I must admit that it does
look odd with its caterpillar tracks suspended in mid air
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Now the crane is in place
the lock is well and truly closed to leisure boat traffic 😊
Mike got in touch from
France on Wednesday as he had thought of another modification we should
consider having to the boat before we come over. Over there, black water is dumped directly into
the canals and rivers. In the UK this is
no longer allowed so you have to pump out the black tank at pump out
stations. There are a few rivers in East
Anglia, controlled by the Environment Agency, where you can still pump out into
the water or use sea toilets, but that is very unusual.
Mike and Aileen bought a
manual pump out kit before going to France and use that to pump out their tank,
but now wish they’d done something different.
His suggestion, from seeing other boats in France, was to add an outlet
with a valve, below the water line from the tank and install a pump. The tank can then be emptied without all the
messiness and kafuffle associated with getting out the manual apparatus.
Thanks Mike – something else
to add to the growing list of jobs and things to do – but it sounds like a good
thing to get done when the boat comes out of the water for blacking in October 😉
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