25th July
Coming through Boulters Lock after viewing the massive luxury housing river development that is being built from Maidenhead railway bridge all the way along the bank, scooting around the last remaining grand old house it seems, we witnessed some excellent lock keeping skills. This is a large lock and as the gates opened to let us and others in, the lock keeper asked us to shift over to the other bank as a boat had broken down in the lock (both of its 2 engines) and was having to be dragged out onto the pontoon we were waiting on. This done, we were the first in and my bow rope was taken up to the top bollard by the assistant, I am glad to say I didn't have to throw it that high. It then became a jigsaw of boats, 4 narrowboats along the right hand wall and 4 cruisers on the left. I was very impressed at how the keeper organised it and took ropes with his boat hook to help us all.
After a long time we were all released in a flotilla up towards Cliveden, a beautiful stretch of National Trust wooded banks with the grand and famous (Profumo affair) hotel overseeing it all.
The old gentleman who sits by the cut from Boulters
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Coming through Boulters Lock after viewing the massive luxury housing river development that is being built from Maidenhead railway bridge all the way along the bank, scooting around the last remaining grand old house it seems, we witnessed some excellent lock keeping skills. This is a large lock and as the gates opened to let us and others in, the lock keeper asked us to shift over to the other bank as a boat had broken down in the lock (both of its 2 engines) and was having to be dragged out onto the pontoon we were waiting on. This done, we were the first in and my bow rope was taken up to the top bollard by the assistant, I am glad to say I didn't have to throw it that high. It then became a jigsaw of boats, 4 narrowboats along the right hand wall and 4 cruisers on the left. I was very impressed at how the keeper organised it and took ropes with his boat hook to help us all.
After a long time we were all released in a flotilla up towards Cliveden, a beautiful stretch of National Trust wooded banks with the grand and famous (Profumo affair) hotel overseeing it all.
The old gentleman who sits by the cut from Boulters
flotilla from full lock towards Clifton
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment