Anton's Gowt Lock (2)

Here I am Rune

Distance 7.9 miles 

Total 4692 Locks  313 Tunnels

Running total mileage 6,923.1 miles

Well we’ve clocked up another Silver Propeller location at the Maud Foster Mill on Maud Foster Drain. Frith Bank was a bit slow and weedy, but the Maud Foster drain was fine, the only issue were the weed booms that had been installed by the local Anglers Society. We were told by another boater to simply drift up to them, push them under the bows and ride over them, making sure the propeller didn’t snag them. Well that didn’t work at all, at every one we drifted up to them but they failed to go under the boat, the first one came away from it’s bankside mooring and the other two broke. We tried calling the number on the board warning of these booms but got no reply, so at the moment all three of them are out of action. It is not entirely clear what the purpose of them is, other than to obstruct the navigation. The lock at Cowbridge was ‘interesting’, working it was OK but there is nowhere to pick up your crew once they’ve shut the lock down, so we left the guillotine gate up s we knew we would be back in an hour or so, and since there is nowhere to pick up the boat crew to work the lock, equally there is nowhere to drop them off to work the lock if it is closed, not very well thought out. A couple of golfers playing alongside the lock told me it was quite rare to see a boat coming through here, I wonder why?

Although we had planned to go further on the drains, the maps we have don’t give enough detail of the risks of low bridges. My computer map makes no mention of the very low Ferrybridge on Kyme Eau so I don’t feel I can rely on it to report low bridges around here, one of the Boston Bridges (Vauxhall Bridge) was very low but we got through OK

The plan now is to remain here at Anton’s Gowt tonight and head into Boston tomorrow for the weekend.