We quietly slipped away from the junction mooring around 9am and headed up the Marsworth flight. Seven locks and all were in our favour. The lower three pounds had ice in them so it was very slow going in a successful effort to avoid damaging the blacking on the water line. I moved through most of the ice with the boat in neutral allowing the motion of the boat to gently break or push the ice.
At the sixth lock there was a widebeam boat coming down. It was a bit of a surprise because the CRT email had advised the flight was only open to narrowboats. However the crew reported they had booked an assisted passage through the top lock with CRT. They might have more of a struggle getting through the ice in the lower pounds.
The contractors were working on repairs to the damaged gate and asked us to wait whilst they finished removing one broken cast iron piece from the top hinge anchor point.
You can see all the broken masonry has been removed in the above photo. The cast iron female anchor point has also been removed.
This is the female half of the top hinge point. You can see the “tongues” that form a strengthening web back into the masonry have sheared.
Two broken “tongues”.
The following is a complete hinge on the top gate of the same lock.
We filled the water tank at the Bulbourne water point and then moved forward mooring behind Still Rockin’ and Valerie before accepting an invitation from Les & Jaq to join them and Carol & George for TOC (tea or coffee) aboard Valerie.
Everyone is looking cheerful!
No comments :
Post a Comment