Endon

Quiet quiet were we were moored last night just above Stoke Top Lock on the towpath, didn’t hear any joggers this morning.
We  set off at 9-30 am dropping back to the lock mouth to make the 340° turn onto the Caldon canal. For some reason locks 1&2 were ready for us, it must have leaked overnight as you require the bottom chamber empty and the top one full to progress. At lock 3 we met our first boat so were able to leave the top gates open, a good omen, but it didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. At Ivy House lift bridge things went smoothly and we were merely chugging along in the sunshine.
Engine lock is interesting as its quite deep. The gate paddles have gearboxes to reduce the force needed to lift the paddles but you seem to have to wind for ever. When you draw the top paddles to fill the lock the water enters half way down the lock and also just in front of the tail gates. Norton Green Lift Bridge has been mechanised since we were here last, it now lifts about 10 times faster than it falls. A boat had just lowered Long Butts bridge as we approached and there was a second boat on the mooring just before the bridge. At first I thought they were leap frogging each other but it turned out the moored boat had broken down. Diana tried to lift the bridge but failed, this is a hand cranked bridge, so one of the chaps from the broken down boat went to try and failed, I just started reversing back to the winding hole when the lady off the broken down boat went and jumped on the bridge and it moved so we were on our way again, however we had the good news there was a boat just ahead of us and as there were 5 locks staring just round the corner we decided to stop for lunch. An hour later we set off but soon caught up with the single hander half way up the flight, Diana went ahead to help him while I followed up alone. We carried on to moor just before the Endon Services.

Today’s Journey

8½ miles, 9 locks in 5 hours