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Most of the leaky lock
gates on the Hatton flight look like this at the moment
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We had planned on going
down to Cropredy to see Mike and Lesley on Saturday and having a pub lunch with
them. Their new boat was delivered just
over a week ago so we would have had a nose around Charlie Mo too. Mind you, the ice on the Oxford canal would
have prevented us going for a cruise ☹
Instead, Karen and I went
for a walk up the Hatton flight and had a quick visit to Sainsburys in Warwick
on the way back. Before we set off I
cleared Friday night’s snow off the solar panels. Last time Mike and Lesley visited us they
bought us a new mop as they couldn’t believe we were still using a decrepit one
for washing down the boat. I’m now glad
I didn’t get rid of the old one as it’s perfect for snow clearing and been used
quite a few times this winter 😊
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Clearing the solar panels
with our old mop
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As is often said, the gas
will run out at the worst possible time.
It always seems to be the case with us, either when it’s pouring with
rain or when we’ve gone out and left a roast in the oven. This week, it went in the evening when it was
snowing and windy. So, it was a
treacherous job climbing onto the icy front of the boat and getting into the gas
locker in the dark with the wind blowing snow all over the place.
Back to our walk: when we
got to the first lock being worked on we saw the new lock ladders had been
delivered. They are being replaced
because the current ones aren’t up to standard.
I really don’t understand what that means because, if locks were built
today they would have to have railings all round and I would imagine the
ladders would have to be enclosed. The
more I think about it, the chance of Health and Safety allowing self-operated locks to be
built anything like those we use today would be most unlikely.
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Lock ladders waiting to be
installed
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Even though it was a Saturday,
and no one was working, the generator was still running. The generator is used to pump the water out
of the bottom of the lock whilst work continues.
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Suction pump seems to have
its own place cut into the lock floor
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The current locks on this
flight were built in the late 1920s so that’s probably why they were made with
the cut out for the pump. The locks,
which are double width, were built alongside the original single width
locks. The idea being to get more freight
through and also wider barges in the face of competition from the railways –
all too late as we now know ☹
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With the lock drained you
can see the size of the ground paddles – much larger than those built at
earlier times
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Buddy really enjoyed
running around in the snow, especially at the deeper parts where the snow had
drifted across the open fields.
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Buddy on one of his mad
runs
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Karen taking the picture
at the top of this blog entry…
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…and to balance things up,
one of me watching her
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After coming back down the
flight, we walked into Warwick to get a few things from Sainsburys and then popped
into Saltisford to check on the car; it hadn’t been used since Sunday, but all
was OK. We had been a little concerned that someone may have skidded into it.
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Looking down on the
Saltisford arm on our way back from checking the car
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When we were nearly home
we saw the local mallards, who seem to have adopted a female mandarin duck. She’s been with them since we arrived here a
few weeks ago and has become quite tame in the way mallards do.
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When we got home it really
started feeling like the thaw had set in; there were icicles hanging on the
fender lines and ice patches on the sides of the boat.
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Hopefully, there’ll be no
reason why we can’t get to Cropredy on Sunday to see Mike and Lesley (and
Charlie Mo).
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