Rowton Monday 19 February 2018

We had rain over night and although it stopped early it remained overcast and drizzly until about 11 am. so we waited until then to set off.

I cilled the boat today and it is frightening how fast things develop, I can see why inexperienced boaters fail to save the situation.

We were going down in Tilstone Lock and as normal I hopped off on the offside, closed the gate that opened as I entered and then walked to the tail gate to draw my paddle. The paddles on these locks ate fitted with gearboxes with about an 8:1 ratio I would say, so it takes some time to lift them. I noticed Harnser drifting back so stopped opening my paddle and went back to pull her forward, just as she started to move she touched the cill, so I went straight back to the bottom gate and started closing the paddle telling Diana to do the same thing. We wound as fast as we could but even so Harnser was well down at the nose and the cill almost visible before we had the situation under control. Had we have had a welldeck we would at a minimum have had water in the boat, but as we are a tug it was just a matter of then opening the top paddles and floating off. Remember I knew exactly what was happening it wasn't a shock to me and I also knew what to do to rectify it but even so with a well deck and open front doors we would have suffered damage. The time it takes to lower those bottom paddles in an emergency feels like forever.

There is a row of Lime Kilns on the off side just above the winding hole between Bunbury and Calveley and this is the best view I have ever had of them.

All the lock except one were against us so at Bunbury Staircase both chambers were empty, so we only needed to fill the top one. Just below the bottom chamber bottom gates the pins are still in the wall that working boats would have made fast to if they had to turn the lock.

We carried on meeting one boat coming up, he had just entered the lock as we arrived so not much help to us as Diana did most of the work, but he must have been moored just below the lock as Beeston Iron Lock was against us.

We carried on past the mile of offside long term moorings at Golden Nook at a steady tick over, it seems to take for ever and moored for the night just before Faulkner's Bridge. On the offside there is a chap living on his boat who does Willow Weaving and we have seen this taking shape over the times we have come down here and yes it is still growing, he also has a nice looking wood oven.

Today's Journey 8½ Miles , 6 lock in 4½ Hours.