First Locks for 7 months (ish)

8th May 2022

We haven’t seen a (proper – not counting Suttons stop) lock for seven months and then eleven all come along at once – that’s two hours worth. We noticed two boats that were moored behind us last night were loosing off this morning so Cap’n got Jannock untied and at the top lock before they had even set off. First boat down Atherstone flight this morning. Excellent!

 As we passed Baddesley wharf, Graham spotted Moondarra moored just outside the wharf. We knew the original owner of this boat who used to be the shop owner at Cropredy bridge many years ago.

As we neared Grendon services, another boat was coming through the road bridge. Brenda signalled that we were pulling into the waterpoint but their steerer just continued on to moor at the wharf. Graham, stood at Jannock’s pointy end holding bow rope in hand pointed out that if they moved back a bit, then there was room for both boats to stop at the services. The fast flowing tap soon filled Jannock’s tank and we were off before they had even extracted their cassette ready to empty.

During all this time part of Jannock’s stern was overhanging an empty long-term mooring and so the neighbour started having a go at Brenda because she shouldn’t be moored there. The reply that “we didn’t have much choice” and “we were not moored up in that space” did not appease. As we left they let their Alsatian dog off the lead so that he could come over and bark at Brenda just to make a point.

We hope the other long term moorers at Grendon appreciate the noisy dogs owned by the people occupying the second mooring.

As we approached Glascote locks we were warned by a south-bound boater that there was a long queue to come up the locks. It would seem that there had been a stoppage in the bottom lock for several hours which was resolved by an engineer from Glascote basin bringing a skeb and a grappling hook to clear the blockage. We passed down both locks without really stopping and thanked the willing helpers who assisted us. All the boats on the right hand side of the picture were in the queue plus a couple around the bend under the bridge.

 

Lock trivia – until 1998 Reliant three wheelers were built in the factory overlooking Glascote locks and were frequently seen leaving the paint shop.

On through Fazely and Hopwas until we stopped and moored up just at the top edge of Hopwas woods. It wasn’t long before we were joined by Terry S. on nb Arun who was heading South towards Fazely. He stayed for a chat, dinner and a couple of beers before.continuing on his way to his early morning bus to work.

G&B