22-9-14 Lapworth Top Lock to Lapworth bottom lock (Kingswood Junction)

Lit fire for first time of the year last night and overnight. Slept soundly in a nice warm boat! But up at seven. Yes I will make an attempt at doing some locks single handed., its a beautiful morning and I am ready to go. Underway by 0800.

Nice early sunshine with mist rising off the canal. A cup of obligatory coffee in hand and the Stourbridge Lion and me are off. First challenge-The lift bridge (see picture above). These are not difficult when there are two of you but on your own-my oh my-worse than doing locks on your own. The root of the problem is that having moored up at the designated point you then cross the bridge to wind the bridge up. Having wound the bridge up (About 50 heavy turns on the windlass) you are then on the wrong side of the canal to the boat. I sat and thought about the problem. The answer seemed to be either A)swim B)jump from the lifted bridge C) lengthen my rope so I could take the end of the rope with me and pull the rope through. D)drive into the bushes on the same side as the bridge as the winding mechanism and hope I could beat my way through the undergrowth onto the bank and back on board. In the end I did option D. I was exhausted after doing two bridges (dont forget there are 50 turns of the very stiff windlass thats 200 turns in total. So after that the locks started but they seemed easy in comparison. After 5 locks, though, things were going quite slow and I was beginning to think this flight would take me all day. Then like the cavalry coming over the hill a cheery lock keeper on his bike went past "Hi, you single handed" he said. "Yes" I replied "I will be back in a minute to give you a hand then" he shouted. So at lock 7 he rejoined me and we worked our way down te flight. I thought there were 14 locks in this section but it turned out there 19! Good job I had had help. "I struggled with those bridges on my own" I said. "Whats the secret for the single handed boater?" "I will tell you the secret" he said. "Make a cup of tea and wait for another boat to come along"
"Great to be working these locks with someone who knows what he is doing " said the lock keeper. I THINK he meant me. Made my day even if he didnt!
Moored up at 1205 at Kingswood junction. Phew! It would have taken me another 3 hours on my own. Caught train into Birmingham and treated myself to lunch!

Kingswood Junction

My old work pal Andy Cryer is hopefully joining me tomorrow for the trip into Stratford and a bit of the Avon. 17 locks tomorrow Andy!