Cyclist to the rescue




Castle Garden Moorings

Formal flower bed in the Castle Gardens

The mooring was peaceful even though we were in the heart of the city. The Captain took Lottie through into the park in the morning. She squatted to go to the toilet but leapt up when something clanged nearby and decided not to go in such a noisy spot.

The cruise out of Leicester was more industrial than the way in but nothing to complain about. At Freeman’s lock the peace was disturbed by the local football stadium practising its emergency evacuation procedure but otherwise all was quiet. At this lock we met a boat and the lock slave helped me open the gate but at the next I was alone.

Star floral attraction

St Mary’s Mill lock was leaking so badly it would not empty so I pushed and pushed but couldn’t move it. The Captain came to help. We pushed and panted but the gate stayed glued shut. The Captain resorted to shoving the lock gate with the boat but though it cracked open it shut again. 

What do you do when all else fails? Wait for rescue. I was still out of breath when a young cyclist stopped.



The football stadium

“Need some help?” he chirped. He pushed enthusiastically, with me adding my weight and the gate opened. He wasn’t much bigger than the Captain but boy was he strong! He patted Lottie and she wagged her tail enthusiastically even though she normally dislikes cyclists so she must have been grateful too. Even the Captain, who often moans about cyclists whizzing past locks was impressed by his help and muscles.



natural beauties

All morning we only met two boats. You would think we were in some remote location. Where is everyone? It was quiet at our lunch stop. Unlike many urban canals there were no walkers or cyclists taking advantage of the towpath.

We moved on slowly coping with the heavy locks. We also stopped for water at Kilby but although the clouds were building the Captain decided to push on. 


Out in the countryside again

We did four more locks each one seeming to have heavier gates than its predecessor. Some were slow to fill and empty due to missing gate paddles.



plenty of water - at last

As we went down the pounds (stretches of canal between locks) became shallow so that the boat churned up the bottom with its propeller. From the height of the run off weirs we could see the pounds were down more than a foot. The long pound where we hoped to moor was very low with mud exposed along its banks. There was no way to moor in the shallow water – we would not get near to the side.
 

Kilby services where we filled with water

Wearily we carried on down three more locks onto the part of the canal we had already explored from the south. All afternoon we only saw one other boat moving – did everybody else know there was a water shortage? At the locks the bottom of the ladders and the tops of the paddle gates were above water a rare sight indeed. It was amazing we got through but we did and moored up on a pound with plenty of water.