2nd September
Beautiful hot sunny day. We planned to moor on Lindsay's Lawn again this evening, but our ignition switch has been playing up, sometimes not firing which is a worry in a lock. Today, despite gallons of WD 40 over the last few days, it was proving more temperamental so we decided to stop near Walton marina to ask if we could get an engineer to look at it. He will come out tomorrow, so it looks as if we are stuck here. Shame there's only the Swan and the Anglers pubs to choose from!
I had a lesson from the cheery Sunbury lock keeper in how to throw a rope to lasso a bollard above (we are now going back upstream of course). It was a good technique and I passed with flying colours. He told me women are better at throwing ropes than men and that his wife had practiced on flower pots in the garden! The secret is to use the weight of the whole rope, hook the last couple of inches onto your little finger, loop the rest, half the loops between your two hands and using both hands, sling the whole lot either side of the bollard. Dead easy - not!!
I can't count the number of times I miss and then it never goes right - the rope goes into the water and you find yourself flinging a wet rope upwards to a disgruntled lock keeper and feeling like a complete plonker. Hopefully I will perfect this new technique and then become a cowgirl.
Beautiful hot sunny day. We planned to moor on Lindsay's Lawn again this evening, but our ignition switch has been playing up, sometimes not firing which is a worry in a lock. Today, despite gallons of WD 40 over the last few days, it was proving more temperamental so we decided to stop near Walton marina to ask if we could get an engineer to look at it. He will come out tomorrow, so it looks as if we are stuck here. Shame there's only the Swan and the Anglers pubs to choose from!
I had a lesson from the cheery Sunbury lock keeper in how to throw a rope to lasso a bollard above (we are now going back upstream of course). It was a good technique and I passed with flying colours. He told me women are better at throwing ropes than men and that his wife had practiced on flower pots in the garden! The secret is to use the weight of the whole rope, hook the last couple of inches onto your little finger, loop the rest, half the loops between your two hands and using both hands, sling the whole lot either side of the bollard. Dead easy - not!!
I can't count the number of times I miss and then it never goes right - the rope goes into the water and you find yourself flinging a wet rope upwards to a disgruntled lock keeper and feeling like a complete plonker. Hopefully I will perfect this new technique and then become a cowgirl.
Location:Walton on Thames
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