Ash Vale

Today's Canal - Basingstoke

We met the Canal Ranger at the bottom of  the Brookwood flight of three locks. nb Joan was already there but they let the wide beam boat that had moored where we were last night go ahead. This meant that we were able to share as yesterday. At least we knew a shared routine which worked quite well again today.

These three locks were fairly slow mainly because the bottom gates often did not open properly. We cleared that light is just an hour.

Almost all of these locks, and those in Deepcut were very similar. Apart from perhaps three that had more substantial bridges just below, all of the rest had the distinctive metal footbridge. None of the gates have footboards for crossing over.

It was just half an hour to the start of the fourteen lock Deepcut flight. Along the way we passed one of the many side extensions - so far we have not discovered their origin. This one was quite substantial but larger ones were to come.

We made slow but steady progress until Lock 21 where we expected to meet a boat on the way down - according to the Ranger. But it was not in sight so we carried on.

The next lock proved a problem. We had alreayd had some cases where the bottom gates would noyt close until we cleared silt away from the cill, but in this cases they appeared to close well. However, well the lock was about 95% full, the boats stopped rising and we realised that a lot of water was coming out under one bottom gate. When we had closed them they did not meet evenly so one was hard against the other but but meeting the cill. This meant that we had to empty the lock and re-close the gates, careful to make sure that they matched together properly.

Whilst this procedure eventually allowed us to ascend without further difficulty, it did mean that we had taken a lot of extra water out of the next pound. Almost at the next lock, nb Joan came around very firmly and just would not move forward. Every trick in the book was used, including taking a hauling line ashore. There was no option but to run water down from the next pound and it took around 300mm before Joan would float again. Overall, this delayed us about 45 minutes.

This meant that we had a similar problem but it was much easier to clear and when we reached the lock we could see that water was now coming down the bywash. A chat with the ranger indicated that he had been to adjust the flow into the flight.

From there to the top of the flight was largely incident free and with some relief we moored on the lock landing to have a well-earned lunch break, rather later than normal!

Just above the lock there is a dry dock. A boat was inside being worked on but we could not see what was being done.

There would be no more locks today so a chance, we thought , to make good progress. Before too long we arrived tat the swing bridge at the Mytchett Centre. Just beyond is a service point and, although we had to wait a few minutes for the preceding boat to take on water, we came alongside and did the usual range. At the same time Andrew took a trip down the weed hatch as near the top of the locks Mike had noticed a strange noise when in reverse and then, on the long pound, Andrew found the boat very sluggish, even with the lack of depth. There was quite a bit of rubbish around the prop including a belt with a metal fastening. Most was easily removed but fishing line around the shaft took a lot more effort. In the end we left the last few bits for another time. Once we set off, the difference was very noticeable.

We passed a couple of  much larger side lakes. The first had a fence to deter boaters from straying into it but the second was more open. A couple of lads were using a sunken barge on the far side either as a diving board or a launch pad for their canoes.

We tried to moor at Ash Wharf but were uncertain about how much of the waterside could be used so we carried on. However, shortly after passing under the next bridge we saw a straight section of towpath. The depth was not great but enough for an overnight mooring and we managed to get close enough at the front not to need the gangplank.

8.0 Miles - 17 Locks