Tuesday 2^nd October 2018

We had thoroughly enjoyed Leicester but were both now ready to leave. We left the moorings just after 8am in a fresh breeze and had a lovely cruise down what is known as the Mile Straight, under all the ornate bridges, watching people going off to work.

At the end of the straight, at Freeman’s Lock, overlooking Leicester City’s King Power stadium, is a huge weir with a Chinese Dragon floating in it, all made of rubbish collected from the river. There was also a marker here, indicating flood water level for a year that was indistinguishable, but the level was a good 8 feet above today’s. 

 

It was then a case of head’s down and lock after lock, some close together, but most ½ or a mile apart. It had been a long time since we had encountered so many locks all in one day. All wide beam and all heavy. These sections of the river are well known for being vulnerable and insecure so we wanted to pass them without stopping. There were many places that we would have moored overnight, but would not have been comfortable leaving the boat unattended. Also we had been warned from numerous boaters about pounds between locks being very low, due to either vandalism or leakage, so wanted to put these sections behind us.

At the King’s Lock (nothing like Middlewich, no pub, but a very pretty cottage) the leakage on the bottom gates was so bad, it took almost 30 minutes to fill the lock and then we had to force the top gates open.

We experienced two low pounds, one between Gee’s Lock and Whetstone Lane Lock. This pound was a mile long and we were dragging the bottom the whole way, but only grounded when coming alongside to let Brenda off, so it was easy enough to re-float and enter the lock.

Coming out of Whetstone Lane Lock, we met with an American and his daughter, Dave and Ann, who had been moored at Friars Mills on Sunday night, so we joined up to do the locks together.

We then encountered the second low pound, between Dunn’s and Bush Lock, ¾ mile long, which was altogether different. The engine laboured along the whole length and we actually thought we were going to become stuck. Bush Lock had a boat in it going downhill, Dave had gone alongside the lock landing and had started to drift out, but I didn’t want to stop as we would not have been able to move again, so, with the engine starting to overheat, I pushed past Dave to get right up to the lock gates. Then the fun really started. The boat in the lock was a heavy, replica workboat, with a much deeper draft than us and she was actually grounded diagonally in the lock and unable to move.

The guy was on the bank just walking up and down but unable to decide a course of action or make any decisions. Similarly, his wife was driving the boat and was shouting to him asking what to do. It took Brenda and myself to organise. Brenda opened the top paddles to flush the boat out and I steered alongside them, keeping power on, to force their boat out. We were trying to persuade them not to continue, at least until more water had been run down, but they would not listen. I suggested that one of them walked on the bank so that, if they did stick, then they could run water down without trying to get off their boat first. Again, they wouldn’t listen and we last saw them pushing and struggling around the first bend.

Beyond Kilby Lock, the 12^th of the day, we were only too happy to stop. We walked up to the pub and met with Ann and had an interesting chat. They are primarily, over here tracing family links, chasing dead bodies as Brenda terms it. Ann is well travelled but Dave has only once been outside the US, on his army service spent in Germany. I always respect people from overseas that decide to holiday on our canals rather than just seeing London. They see so much more of the true country and the people.

Weather: dry but chilly. Periods of sun. Windy most of the day.

Day Total: 12 locks; 8 miles; 0 Tunnels; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 9.6

                                                                                    (including running engine for hot water over weekend)

Overall Total: 243 locks; 422miles; 15 tunnels; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 258.8