[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Brian Holt wrote: > > "Bob Wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in > > message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > snip > > > >>> > >>> PLA says the traffic through the lock between 19:00 and 7:00 is very > >>> light. In the summer, two boats a night; in the winter, one boat > >>> every two weeks. > >>> > >>> ********** > >>> > >>> OK, so what do you think? > >>> > >>> Yes, you guessed it, it seems reasonable to me. > >> > >> > >> Seems reasonable to me as well. Neither Brentford nor Limehouse > >> will let you out at a time that will get you there outwith those > >> hours
Not strictly true - if you give them notice, Brentford will open any time between 6am and 10pm I think. But in fact in the vast majority of circumstances it's possible (and generally easier) to time your journey so you can go through Richmond when the sluices are open anyway. I've made numerous trips on the Thames tideway and only used Richmond lock twice: (1) when heading downstream from Teddington to Bow in the days of the old Limehouse ship-lock whose restricted hours made timings of downstream journeys awkward and (2) travelling from Brentford to Teddington when high water at Brentford was at 4.30am but because Brentford Locks didn't open till 6.00 we didn't get to Richmond till after the sluices shut. (1) wouldn't apply now we can use Limehouse at much more states of tide (and there's somewhere to wait there) so we wouldn't need to go right down to Bow. (2) could still happen, but if you just took it slowly up the river you'd arrive at Richmond just as the keeper arrived on duty at 7am anyway. I guess something similar could happen if high water was at 23.30 and you wanted to go from Teddington to Brentford - you would need to use Richmond Lock at about 21.00 to be sure of getting into Brentford between it opening at 21.30 and closing at 22.00. so it doesn't seem sensible for a locky (or more) to sit there > >> and wait for boats that just are not going to come. > >> > > > > > > In that case where do the two boats a night come from? > The big wide world? Or an evening disco boat going out and back? > When the sluices are down Richmond Lock is the head of the Tideway. > In Ireland on the Barrow Navigation they have a much better way of operating > the sea lock at St Mullins...it is kept unlocked and is boater operable! ;-) ...as is Brownshill Staunch (Lock) on the Great Ouse, which surprised me. Are there any other British tidal locks that are boater-operated? (Probably one of the dafter things I did when I was much younger was take a Celtic Cruisers hireboat through St Mullins Lock onto the tideway to turn it round because there wasn't much room to wind above the lock due to moored boats. I later found out that I could easily have put it aground on a shoal on a falling tide and had to swim ashore to find a phone box and make a very embarrassing call to the boatyard.) Martin
