Solace moored near "Drayton Brick Bridge".

A day with many locks, just my sort of canal cruising day.  Photography while working a lock isn't easy, the camera swings about as your body moves turning the windlass.  So today's blip is Solace moored before we started off for the day.

I took the shot before I started the daily checks, oil, water, bilges, stern gland etc.  It was just as well I did as further on a lock proved to be a problem.  Narrowboats are nominally 7 feet in beam (measured in feet because metric wasn't in use when the canals were built).  Locks are nominally 7 foot 6 inches.  Obviously fitting in has to be done with care.  Boats have sunk by going into locks with the fenders down jamming and being flooded as the lock fills.

As we tried to enter one lock the gate wouldn't open fully and the bows jammed.  It took full reverse and me hauling on a line to free her.  The cause was likely to be something behind the gate.  So taking the "Long Shaft" (Long pole) I decided to have a poke about.  Laid flat on the ground with the pole at arm's length I could just and so touch the bottom.  My poking didn't improve things.  Eventually, we got through by one of us pushing the balance beam as hard as possible and one pulling on the end of the gate.