Who needs lock paddles?

Wednesday, 02 December 2009 14:00

Further to interest in the "state of the waterways"

Here are a couple of contenders for consideration!

I mentioned Dimmingsdale Lock's leaky bottom gates on my previous blog.

Dimmingsdale's Leaky gates

What I neglected to tell you was that you don't need to use the bottom paddles. How do I know this? The photo below was taken after the top gate was closed and before John opened the bottom paddles.

Lock - 3 bricks down

As Epiphany went down in the lock I counted the brick layers to the bottom. Yes I know I am "sad", but I was interested to calculate how long it would have taken without raising the paddles!

Clever me came up with this equation:-

Brick layers in lock = 43

Brick layers down before paddles were opened = 3

Time taken for John to begin opening paddles = 3 minutes

Therefore 1 brick layer = 1 minute

43 layers x 1 minute  = 43 minutes

Now don't tell me I am a genius, it might go to my head! However we were not prepared to wait 43 minutes, so John "did his stuff" and we were down in aboout 5 minutes!

The second contenders to consider are the notices at Awbridge Lock - spotted by John.

This one is for fishermen

This one is for boaters

Can anyone tell me the difference? Apart from size and shape, that is!

Full marks - the age and legibility! Now what were canals built for? Navigation, I think! The former is for those on the bank, the latter is for those who navigate.

Is this an indication of the priorities of sign maintenance. Maybe fishermen need legible, simple, spankingly clear notices (they certainly have enough of them on this canal) and boaters are seen as intelligent, thinking, considerate and myopic! Am I biased - NO, I quite like chatting to fishermen as we go by.

Hmm - but who pays the most for the privilege!?