Thursday 25th
July 2019
Today was a hard day and one neither of us particularly enjoyed. The
locks across the summit have restrictions on them due to the defective pumps
that keep the summit filled. The locks are only open on Tuesday’s and
Thursday’s between 10am and 12 noon with no boats allowed after noon and the
locks locked up after the last boat.
Already, on what was to become the hottest day on record, it was hot
when we left the moorings at 8:30 for the 3-mile journey to the locks. We had
been behind a boat on the mooring, who we had nicknamed Mr. Nasty. A guy who
would not engage at all or make eye contact, a shifty character. When he saw us
about to leave he promptly pulled out in front of us, presumably to reach the
locks first, and then proceeded to go no faster than tick-over all the way to
the locks. With our tick-over being faster, we spent half our time in neutral.
And the guy just ignored us.
The run to the locks again has some lovely scenery, it is peaceful and
tranquil. Yet this is belied with so many World War II relics in the form of Pill
Boxes along the canal and tank traps on many of the bridges. These structures
are all now listed monuments. A lot of canals were to be used as defence points
in case of German invasion and the Kennet and Avon was to be one of the most
significant.
Peace and Tranquillity
Once at the locks, Mr.Nasty got his comeuppance when he was forced to
share with an old fibreglass cruiser who was single-handed. This meant his
partner having to do the bulk of the work herself and their progress was slow.
Initially, we were doubled up with a boat, Caroline, that we
subsequently became friendly with although they stopped for water after the
first lock. We did the second lock on our own before waiting for the boats
behind to catch us and shared the locks with one of them. We couldn’t have done
worse as we ended up with a pair of freeloaders on a boat called Jerome. There
is nothing more annoying than working a flight of locks with another boat that
do not pull their weight.
There are four locks leading to the summit. The summit pound is 2½
miles long, then follows the seven downhill locks of the Crofton Flight with a
further two locks having to be worked to reach beyond the restriction.
At the third uphill lock, the first being shared with the freeloaders,
the woman was steering the boat but the guy took an immense amount of time
climbing off their boat, climbing the lock wall ladders, and then tying their
boat up. By this time, Brenda had shut both bottom gates, closed the downhill
paddles and opened the uphill ones.
When we left the lock, he boarded their boat and left Brenda to close
both gates. Very annoying, just taking the piss. The pounds between the locks
are no more than 200 yards and Brenda prefers to walk. However, with the guy
back on his boat, she was left to open the paddles to drain the lock and open the
bottom gates on her own. She opened just the one gate as it happened.
When they entered the lock, I let them know in no uncertain terms that
this was not going to continue and they would have to do their share of the work.
At the remainder of the locks, they did more but the bulk was very much left to
Brenda.
Beyond the top lock the sides of the canal begin to close in before entering
a steep sided cutting. Burbage Wharf, with its restored wooden crane, was followed
by the 502-yard-long Bruce Tunnel. While there are two tunnels in Bath, they
carry no more than a road and so are bridges in name only. The Bruce Tunnel is the
only proper tunnel on the K&A. Although the tunnel is wide beam sized, it Is
unusually stated that it is for a one-way traffic system. Jerome had fallen so
far behind us that two boats coming in the opposite direction had already
entered the tunnel once we exited, only for Jerome to then enter at the
opposite end. Jerome was a wide boat, certainly it was a tight squeeze sharing
the locks with them, they also had big fenders hanging down which didn’t help matters.
I would have loved to have known what was said between the boats in the tunnel.
Jerome was suitably quiet and subdued when I pointed out the tunnel was one-way
and asked how they got on passing the other boats.
Burbage Wharf
The winding hole above the downhill top lock is interesting. The retaining
walls of a disused railway are still in place and the feeder channel from Crofton
Pumping Station enters. Mr. Nasty was exiting the lock when we arrived, and yet
again, as they had on every lock, they left the gates open. With it only being
50 yards to the next lock, I took off and gave them a piece of my mind. It was
a long and hard enough, hot day, without being left to finish other people’s
tasks. He chose to ignore my words of wisdom, but at least all further gates
were closed.
The pound between the top and second lock was almost empty of water
with just a shallow channel in the centre. With a plastic yoghurt pot moored in
the middle, and two boats coming out of the second lock, there was obviously going
to be trouble passing. I held our power on and moved over as far as I thought
safe and, with the boat leaning very heavily to one side, and drawers and
cupboard doors inside flying open and things on the worktops sliding onto the
floor, we just managed to pass the oncoming boats.
Keeping the power on is the only option in these circumstances, but
Jerome slowed down and promptly went aground right across the channel. Chaos
ensued until the two other boats managed to squeeze passed them and Jerome was able
to refloat. We were becoming more and more annoyed and frustrated with Jerome continuously
not pulling their weight properly and not being able to control their boat.
The amount of leakage from these top gates was unbelievable, as with a
number of locks in the Crofton Flight. With defective pumps it is small wonder there
are restrictions in place.
Heavy gate leakage on Crofton Flight
We had wanted to stop below Lock 61 to visit Crofton Pumping Station, but
the restriction had been expanded to beyond Lock 63, meaning we had to continue
on a further mile and two locks. While waiting for lock 62 to be filled, Jerome
again ran aground on the mud on the offside and had to be towed off by the boat
behind them.
We were really dismayed when this boat, Semi-Retired, came into the
lock beside us, swapping one freeloader for another. We had seen this boat a number
of times over the last few weeks, passing us, when moored up, far too fast and on
one occasion, almost pulling the mooring spikes out of the ground. We passed him
at the bottom of the Caen Hill Flight when he openly admitted that he was
waiting for another boat that would take him up the flight. They were an older
couple and she, supposedly, had arthritis. Yet they had looked alright to us
when we had seen them walking around Devizes with shopping bags!
We had several attempts to moor below the last lock before eventually,
getting something like alongside at Mill Bridge 97. The mooring was not ideal
but we were both more than ready to stop. Brenda in particular, had done an
awful lot of work was suffering from the heat.
Shortly after mooring, Caroline arrived and between us, we managed to
get them moored up. An evening of drink and chatter followed with late bed times.
There were a few short showers throughout the evening. Nothing heavy, but large
drops, we all just sat there enjoying the cooling effect, it was so hot.
Weather: very hot, supposedly the hottest day on record.
Day Total: 13 locks; 9 miles; 1 Tunnels; 0 Swing Bridges; 0 Lift
Bridges; 0 Boat Lift; engine running hours 3.3
Overall Total: 610 locks; 1104 miles; 49 tunnels; 45 Swing Bridges; 5
Lift Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 695.1hrs
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