THIS WEEK AT THE LOCKS

Well peeps another busy week for your friendly gang of lock keepers at Hillmorton (The Busiest Locks In The Country). Plenty of boats as you would expect on the run up to Crick together with a bank holiday weekend, although strangely Friday morning first thing was very quiet. Could it have been something to do with the monsoon we experienced.

The first boater was such a relief that myself and volley Vince insisted he stay on the boat and we would squelch up the flight and assist him through.

At the second lock we were talking with the boater as we waited for the lock to fill and conversation got round to his array of solar panels. The boater informed us that after about March he was self sufficient in electricity stating that he had enough even for his dishwasher. At this point I stood back amazed and informed the boater that he was looking at the dishwasher off my boat.

However it soon busied up as the rain eased and in no time at all we had a queue of 6 boats all going up. At one stage volley Vince had to go up to the middle lock to sort out the delay. In the afternoon we started to get the weekender hirers amongst whom were a group dressed as Mexicans. It turned out to be a group of old university chums on their annual get together where they had a different theme each year. One young lady swathed in beads and shawls came up for tuition in operating the lock. I did point out to her that she might like to secure her dangly bits before whirring round with her windlass in order not to strangle herself. Another gentleman was dressed head to toe in a yellow garment with a red top to his head. I enquired of him if he was MATCHSTICK to which he indignantly replied "No I am a bottle of Tequila" and off they rode into the sunset.

The next interesting group were two boats travelling together with a bunch of lads on each, they were a little loud due to copious amounts of falling over water consumed but we managed to get them through the locks safely despite themselves. However on the Saturday morning a boater came down the locks with the tale of the two hire boats who were racing each other to a bridge but got there at the same time. Result boats jammed in bridge and canal closed. Due to the combined efforts of other boaters and the hire base management the boats were eventually extricated and peace returned. These same two hire boats came down the locks a little later on the Saturday, the two crews considerably quieter than when they went up.

The first of our boxes for the ERB garden has been filled with soil and vollies Jane and Taryn were busy planting them up the idea being when they are established that boaters and other visitors to our locks can then help themselves to fresh ERBS.

Saturday night saw the team of vollies trying out the local curry house where a jolly good evening was had by all. We can now personally recommend this establishment to any passing boater looking for sustenance.

That's it for this week peeps so have a good week and keep on boating.