The day I brought Jubilee back from Gayton to Milton Keynes was a superb cruising day. It's a lot easier and quicker going down a flight of locks single handed than going up - especially when there are bystanders who can be roped in to close gates - and if the sun shines, as it did, then that's a bonus.
At Grafton Regis the sun sparkled on the water: the optics of the camera giving a starburst effect to every glint.
Here's a wider crop to include the field of sheep and the sky:
2 comments:
That's interesting... I've never gone downhill single handed, but I would have thought uphill was easier.
(Talking about wide locks here.) Going down I steer into the lock, then close gate and raise paddles as quickly as I like with no worries about turbulence. After opening the bottom gate I haul the boat out with the centre line and hang onto the line while closing the gate behind me, the boat staying handily in the tail of the lock. The last operation is more difficult going up as the boat has to completely clear the lock before the top gate can be shut, and the centre line isn't long enough. What is really annoying is the presence of footbridges such as at both top and bottom lock of the Stoke Bruerne flight. They make it impossible to bow haul. Going up I therefore had to steer into the top lock, then climb up the ladder. (This is when I managed to dislodge the long shaft into the lock, without realising I'd done it.)
Post a Comment