For the most of the time today was a bright sunny day. There was a brief spell late morning when darker clouds arrived and we felt a few spots of rain but it amounted to little or nothing.
As we neared Triggs Lock, our first of the day, we could see that a boat was preparing the lock (another boat had just gone down and reported difficulty with opening the bottom gates) We were able to share with them - a rather unusual former Thames inspection boat, which was making for its home mooring at Pyford. (Alas we did not manage a good enough photo of it to included here)
Next we passed through Worsfold Flood Gates - these are constructed with a more usual box shaped lock in between, unlike the others we come to later which remain a turf sided lock.
Passing under Cart Bridge we were surprised by the retained date stone of 1759 but, of course the present bridge is much more recent, 1998, over 200 years later.
We wrote about the Tannery Studios in the blog on the way up when the weather was rather wet. A somewhat more informative photo this time although it would be necessary to stand on the towpath opposite to get a really good angle.
This photo at Papercourt Lock shows how the swirling waters below (a confluence of the bywash and the lock emptying) make it a bit more complicated for steerers and why the lock landing is back the other side of this footbridge.
Newark Mill House (now almost hidden behind the trees) is an early 19C house that was attached to a mill. Alas, 1996 the mill was burnt to the ground - as a local newspaper reported at the time.
When we came through Walsham flood gates before we were a but unsure whether we were correct in saying that the upper set of gates have been removed, so we check carefully. We were correct (for once!) They were, however, in place in 2015 - see blog.
An interesting dead tree.
When mooring yesterday we discovered that we have lost one of our mooring pins. Still enough for normal mooring but we like to have a spare for when a loose centre line is a sensible 'belt and braces' backup. We only realised that Parvis Marine have a small chandlery as we were passing and the lady there was un pacmking a delivery of new stock. We quickly backed up and acquired a replacement.
The other side of the bridge is Byfleet Boat Club, complete with boats for hire - a bit more later but an interesting social history is on their website.
At New Haw, we saw from a distance that the top gates were being opened and shut. As we arrived we could see that it was a man with several young lads who, after we tooted, opened up for us to sail directly on. Christine asked if they were on a boat and it seemed that they were just out for the day. Quick thinking, Christine asked if they knew how to work the lock and would they like to help. They perhaps over-estimated the former but were very keen to help and did all the work for us!
This chap is a more cheerful way of fending off unwanted moorers than the more common abrupt No Mooring signs.
At Coxes Lock as lady single hander was just coming up. It seems that she is a keen member of Byfleet Boat Club but moors just below this lock. She said that it was a condition of the leasing of the club house back in the 1950s was that the club hired out boats to the public at weekends and Bank Holidays and that this condition is still in place. It is now a condition of joining the club that members do at least one weekend each year operating the boat hire and she was on her way up to do her stint this week end!
A short while later we arrived above Town Lock and moored where we stopped on the first night of our Wey navigation trip. (Put the new pin to use!)
9.4 Miles - 6 Locks
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