I forgot to tell you about the Gendarmes!
09 November 2011 | Same as before.
We have Frank on board with us at the moment. He is very helpful, doesn't say much. One of the lock keepers gave us a remote control or 'zapper' yesterday, so we christened it Frank, after Frank Zappa, although Tim thinks I named it after Mr Lampard. So every time you get 200m from a lock, you press a button on Frank, which starts the process of emptying the lock, changing the light signals, opening the gates etc. The locks are very narrow! About 5m think. Our beam is almost 4m I think, (can't check this with the boss at the moment, as he has fallen asleep), anyway, with the boat well fendered each side, there is virtually no space between us and the wall of the lock. Once in the lock you have to attach a bow line and stern line to the bollards in the lock to hold the boat while the lock fills. The locks sometimes have rows of bollards half way up the wall and more on top of the quay, and you move the line from the lower to higher bollard as the water fills, but this week all the locks have only had bollards on the top of the quay which means you have to hurl the ropes up from the deck to the quay, which is usually out of sight above your head. So you have to become an expert at the art of lassooing! If you don't get the rope over the bollard first go, it gets a bit stressful, especially if there are people watching you, as you have to collect in metres of wet rope, coil it again, and throw again ....
When both lines are attached securely, I then find Frank and press the button, which closes the lock gates behind us and let's the water in at the front, which sometimes resembles a small tsunami and you have to hold the lines very tightly and try not to let the very long mast which overhangs the boat fore
and aft, from bashing into the wall. So far the orange bucket on the end of the
mast has only got one medium sized crack in it ....