Day 119 - up the Watford flight.

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8 locks, 455 in total.







We moored just one lock below the top of the Buckby flight yesterday and by 9am had worked that lock and were taking on water. A dog walker asked John if we were stopping for breakfast now we'd completed the flight; the walker looked suitably impressed when John told him we breakfasted already!







To Norton Junction and turning northwards onto the Leicester Line of the Grand Union, a very scenic canal although quite narrow in places. We were heading for the Watford Flight – 2 single locks, then 4 in a staircase and one more single, all in quick succession. And it was at this flight that our luck ran out and we had to queue for almost 2 hours to get through. There is a permanent lock keeper here to save inexperienced boaters from themselves and he lets batches of 6 boats go through in convoy at a time. I'd been looking forward to these locks as we'd worked staircases of two and three, but never four – I was intrigued as to the best way to do them and then as I walked up the flight I realised that there were 3 large side ponds in use as well. Each boat has to book a slot with the lock keeper, to avoid queue jumping and so that he can tell you which batch you'll be travelling with once the downhill batch had all come through.







The side ponds are in terraces up the slope. The 3 single locks are worked as normal, once you're allowed to start the passage. The staircase locks do not have standard ground or gate paddles – they have 2 side paddles which are either red or white, the red one lets water flow from a side pond to lock whilst the white one lets water flow from lock to side pond. This means that water is not emptied down the staircase, potentially flooding boats in lower locks but proceeds in a zigzag fashion. Always raise the red paddle first to bring water in from the side pond before raising the white paddle to replenish the side pond from the next lock up the staircase – do it the wrong way round and the side pond overflows the terraces. Oh, and always close the paddles as soon as you can open the gates between one staircase lock and another – at this point both the locks and the side pond will be at exactly the same level. It was actually considerably easier to do than to explain – I did check with the lock keeper though before I opened the first 2 paddles, just in case. It was a very speedy process once you started and we worked the 7 locks in 45 minutes.







If we hadn't had to queue then we would have avoided the rain that set in about 1.30; the only respite was when we were in Crick Tunnel. The boat feels rather cold and damp and we're just not used to this!

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Photos

Canal bridge carrying the A5 - Watling Street.
The bridge has been widened so the towpath has its own tunnel with a steep flight of steps at the lock end - difficult for modern day horses.

Certificates supplied if requested!
We didn't.