Wednesday 22 July 2015

Early morning wake up call from Harry at 6.45am!  Beautiful sunny morning and the smell of malt coming from the brewery.

Pulled pins and set off at 7.30am – the first lock was against us so we had to fill it up but the next few were in our favour.  Chugged past Willow moored up a few locks before the top of the flight.  There are a total of 29 locks in 2.25 miles – 16 of which make up the Caen Hill section and you are not allowed to moor in this section.  We arrived at lock 44 which is the first of the 16 coming from this direction at about 9.00am.  Looking at the first few they are all empty with one bottom paddle open on each and we need them full!  I jump off, close the paddle and fill the lock, Steve brings the boat in, open the bottom paddles and we are ready to exit the first lock.  I push and pull and push and pull and cannot budge the gate, then a kind chap walking his dogs gives me a hand but we still can’t budge it – go over to the other side and eventually with the two of us pushing with all our might we finally get the gate to open – thank you whoever you were!
 

Into the next lock, after closing the bottom paddle, filling it and opening the top gates.  Let the water out and same thing again.  I cannot budge the gate so Steve has to climb up the ladder, tie up the boat and come and help me – same thing again we have to open the far gate to get things started. 

Luckily there is a boat coming up the flight and the volunteers have arrived to give us a hand.  We mentioned to them about the trouble we were having opening the gates and they explained that if you are first through the flight and have to close the bottom paddles there is a build up of the pressure of water because all the side pounds are full to capacity, hence the reason they have to leave the bottom paddles open otherwise the farm at the top of the flight gets flooded.  Then we spot Rob and Hilly walking up the hill – reinforcements have arrived!!  Poor Rob, having been kicked out of bed early, thought he was coming to admire the picturesque views and countryside not get roped into opening 14 lock gates....He also kept it quiet that when the windlass had slipped off the end of the spindle it had sent his hand flying round and  he punched the lock gate which resulted in a cut and swollen hand – sorry Rob.
 

We enter the next lock after the two boats coming up the flight have exited it, we now have a volunteer and Rob and I and surprise surprise because the pressure has been released by the people coming up the flight the gates open relatively easily!  Thankfully because we would never have coped (or my poor knees wouldn’t have) if they had all been the same as the first two.  The views from up here are unbelievable – very dramatic.

We get to the bottom of the flight and moor up, say a quick goodbye to Rob and Hilly, who have kindly invited us to stay at theirs tonight and will come back to collect us once we have got through the last seven locks then into Caen Hill Marina where we have booked to stay for a couple of nights.

The heavens decided to open two locks in and we got soaked again, then the sun comes out as if it has never rained only now we have soaking wet hats and coats and it is very wet under foot – the great British summer!

Moored up in Caen Hill Marina and off to Rob and Hilly's to sleep in a bed that you can get out of on both sides!!

Exiting the first of 29 locks - only 28 to go!

And into the third lock - the gates are pretty heavy so Steve can have a go!

This is the empty end of the lock but you can see how much is still leaking in through the sides of the doors and there seems to be holes under the water line in the walls.

Totally at ease with having my photo taken......not - why do I always do a funny dance!  Breakfast on the lock gate - this is the first of the 16 in the flight - and at this point I don't know how hard the other end is going to be to open! 

On our way down the flight

This picture doesn't really capture it but hopefully you get the idea - the man in the middle is six locks away!!
 

View from the top - nice photo Steve!



Luckily I took one with my phone too - felt like we were on top of the world!

With a little help from our friends - Rob on the left, Steve on the right.

 

And the view from the bottom of the 16 - quite impressive don't you think!

Not bad for a morning's work honey!

A sea of lillies

And leaving the flight behind

Thanks for your help Rob and company Hilly - hope that knee gets better soon!

I meant to take a picture of the sign at the beginning but thankfully there was one at the bottom too!

Thank you all for reading the blog - your texts mean a lot and make it worth doing - it has only taken me four hours this morning to get the last two posts uploaded - still it's nice being retired and have the time to do it but now I must do some hovering whilst we are still hooked up to mains electric in the Marina!