Here is the last day of our trip to Beale Park - a little late, but not forgotten:
Friday 1st September 2006 Kingston to Northolt I got up early, as I knew the tide was quite early today. I started the boat up at 7:40, but when we reached Teddington the lock moorings where empty. Apparently the main lot had gone 1/4 hour earlier, and the lock keeper had counted 24 boats!! We knew we were in for a long wait at Brentford now, and leaving the locks at about 08:15 we hoped we would catch some of the slower boats up. Just as we came onto the last straight at Brentford I saw a narrowboat turn into Brentford, so we nearly caught them up! Just after turning in to the lock cut (actually the River Brent) I had to come to a sharp stop as the queue was nearly to the end of the wall. Over and hour and a half later we finally managed to get through the lock - and since there was an odd number, we had to lock through on our own. We reached the gauging locks, and the modern pair (I think the butty had power as well, but they were obviously playing nicely) went for the lock on the right. I pulled into the moorings on the left to let my Dad off, but now they had changed their minds and wanted to be in the same place as well. I had to pull back, manoeuvring carefully as the boat was under the large but low arched Brentford high street bridge. The two locks were ready at the same time, and so I went into the right side one. The paddles in these locks hold the boat in the middle, so I didn't bother with ropes. A boat on it's own at the top whose partner stopped in the pool, offered to go up the locks with us, but we had to wait as some how Dad's keys had managed to be used for the other lock. Once up we started up the canal, but we didn't get very far as there was another long queue at Clitheroe's Lock. This was filling slowly as one of the bottom gates wasn't fitting to the cill very well. One of the boats (a hireboat that had joined the throng) stopped on the moorings at Hanwell, thus leaving a gap, so now we were sharing with another boat. There were delays up nearly all the locks, and occasionally Dad had to go up two locks to see what was happening. We back set the locks for the other boat following. Once we reached the top we had a clear run to Northolt. I emptied the toilet while passing the sanitary station, and then ran up to Lyons dock to turn around. A couple of the videos Dad had bought from the rally had old images of the Lyons factory, and dock as it used to be - which was nice to see. I'll get around to doing a now and then sooner or later - probably later :-) We now how a stag do to go to in Nottingham - just as well we weren't going by boat as it would have meant longer days! -- Michael Askin http://shoestring.zapto.org/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
