Half Day Holiday.

 It was a dreary morning with off and on rain so we decided to stay put until it got a little better. It was forecast to fair up around 12:30 and so it turned out. Mind you it was still quite blustery. We did a few tidy up and clean jobs so I was glad to get moving after a bite to eat.

There were quite a few bluebells out on the offside between our mooring and Wood Lock. There are so many wild flowers out that they must be appreciating the damp and warm conditions. I think we could do with a break from the damp no though!

In the wind it was pretty cold. I had it okay as the wind was from astern, especially for the first few locks, but Helen had to look right into it here is nobody who has taken on the care of Wood Lock. It must be a bit from a road too, or a van would have been round with painters etc.

Not far from the lock was the site of the HS2 works. There were a workers about and this machine looked as though it was boring larger hole for big piles.

The Bascote Locks are next, after Welsh Road Lock that is. As we approached the staircase pair a couple of hire boats arrived at the top. We carried on up without trying to drop them down and swap with one of them in the middle etc. as it seemed they were having enough trouble to get alongside!

In 1933 it was a very hot summer and drought was a very real possibility for the village of Harbury, not far from the Bascote Locks. The village wells had dried up and there was real worry about not being able to find an alternative source. A reporter who heard about the thirst of the villager had recently been to the works at Welsh Road and Bascote Locks to build the wide beam locks and was aware that one of the problems they were having that excavations had uncovered a spring that was issuing lots of water. It was then thought that this could be easily piped to the villager. Investigation found that the water extremely hard and when the cost of softening to drinking quality was taken into account it was too expensive. I wonder where they got their water  from in the end, and what did the engineers do with the spring water?

There two or three C&RT vans at the top of the locks but when they saw Helen coming towards them they quickly packed up and were off. The lock was empty so she was just opening the gate of the staircase pair so I could go straight in.

Last lock of the day, but we did stop at Bascote Wharf to top up with water.

I think I mentioned when we did the Hatton flight that to fully wind the Ham Baker lock gear takes between 22 and 25 turns of the windlass, when really the sluice is fully open after 18 turns. I have worked out that if all the locks are against you and you have to raise and lower one paddle at each end of the 21 locks and only turn the windlass 18 times instead of, say 24 times, thus saving 6 revolutions that would save 252 turns, and that is the same as winding 14 paddles, or the effort in working 7 locks. Worth thinking about.

There was a long line of boats seemingly stretching all the way to the way to the Two Boats and Cuttle Bridge. I'm sure there would be gaps but we just stopped before the River Itchen aqueduct.

The sun came out once we were moored up and I had a few more little jobs to occupy myself before getting down to writing the blog.