So at 8.20 I can't wait any longer and set off, a slow cruise along the 1/2 mile of the Wey to Woodham Junction:
I see Dick and Brenda turn into the Basingstoke from the other direction, we cruise along the short section to lock 1, we go straight into the lock, Dick follows, and we wait, and wait and we wait a bit more! The BCA are supposed to turn up at 9.30, eventually with both kettles on and Dick calling the BCA, our 'lock monitor' shows up, Unlocks the paddle gear and up we go. We get our visitor licences and information packs too, I decide to look at mine later. It's a really nice day at the moment - more on this later!!
We ascend the 6 Woodham locks with surprising ease, passing the house boats between 1 and 2 and 2 and 3 with care.
Lock 3 had quite a bit of rubbish preventing the gates from opening fully, but Dick & Brenda had come equipped and fished it all out.
Exiting lock 6 we picked up some weed, but it span off easily with a burst of reverse, so we continued the 3 miles or so through Woking to St John's at a fairly gentle pace, the canal is quite shallow so no point in pushing along. Woking itself looks quite uninviting from the canal, only a couple of potential mooring spots & the lock opening times don't really encourage a stop here!!
We had sporadic bursts of rain, but nothing to get too excited about, had a spot of lunch on the move and arrived at lock 7. St John's is a flight of 5 locks, a bit closer together than the Woodham flight. The first 2 are negotiated without a problem, then we get to lock 9!!
Ok, here goes with the saga of lock 9:
It all starts innocently enough, in we go, gates closed, paddles open. I take a look at the bottom gates and think "hmm.. that's a bit of a gap, I look closer and think "there's a lot of water coming through these gates" I have a chat with the others and suggest that we shut the top paddles, empty the lock and try to remedy the situation, maybe something is stuck there. We do this and try again. Maybe it's a bit better, I'm not sure, so we open the top paddles fully and hope for the best. While this is going on all hell breaks loose, there are claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, hail stones and rain, lots of rain!! Dick dives inside his boat for his and Brenda's waterproofs, this causes his boat to drift forwards and his bow gets stuck under the front gate, a potential sinking situation!! This spotted we drop the top paddles - again!! and open the bottom - again!! I slide along the top gate to try to kick the bow out, eventually it moves back, we close the bottom paddles. I'm left sitting on the top gate and have to side shuffle to the lock side, not so easy with the boat gone!! and the beam covered in hailstones. Anyway, we resume locking up, the rain / hail still pelting down. All this has resulted in a dramatic drop in the level of the next pound, but hey ho, we'll deal with that if we have to. Penny takes our boat out, I advise her to go slowly and keep to the middle, which she does. About 2 boat lengths out it grinds to a halt, bugger!! Off I go to the next lock to let water down, this I do, the rain is still pelting down, I'm quite pleased with my new North Face waterproof, £180 very well spent ! I let water down until the boat appears, then close the paddle. The boat grinds to a halt again, so down goes some more water. Eventually we get both boats into lock 10 and ascend without difficulty. Trouble is, it's not quite over!!
Lock 10 done, we head for 11, remember we were taking water for our previous difficulties? Well, as Penny gets to the lock 11 entrance, it stops again. So more water until we force our way over the cill, Dick joins us and up we go, last lock of the day. Wandering down the towpath comes fellow JP skipper Phil to see how we're doing, all nice and dry, they've been tied up at St John's for shopping.
On we go to Brookwood Park for the night, I make use of the nice mooring and water point, all provided by the canal society. Dick ties up behind, there's another visiting boat in front, also down from Cropredy, Rowan who followed us up both Woodham and St John's pitches up and Phil shows up a bit later, looks like 5 boats for the continued adventure tomorrow.
The weather continues for a few hours, rain, sun, hail, the lot really. Dick and Brenda come over for dinner and bring me port, I love these guys. I even find time to trot down to the garage on the 322 for pasta when I realise we don't have enough.
Actually a great day, this is what boating is all about for me, a bit of a challenge with an edge of adventure, I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Today's wildlife:
Today: 8 miles - 11 locks - 7 hours
So Far: 121.5 miles - 56 locks - 60 hours
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