The Mattress, The Angler and The Lights in the Sky

Sunday, 1st February

The view from last night's mooring ar Walsall Top Lock

With Mark having returned to Oxford last night, Twelfth of Never was three-handed again for the passage - downhill this time - of the Walsall Locks. We were away at 9.00am and made good progress down the easy-to-work flight until being confronted by this sight:

Trouble ahead at Walsall

This caused a little delay whilst we ran water down the flight, taking care not to drain any of the short pounds above us. The lack of water exposed quite a bit of debris, including a complete mattress that had been resting on the mud below the full lock but which was then flushed down the channel by the inrush of water, coming to rest in the entrance to the lock below. It fell to me to remove it and keep it clear of Twelfth of Never's propeller as we moved down and into the lower lock. 

Not around my prop, please!

As expected, the Walsall Canal was shallow and very slow going, but we avoided any major hazards until arriving at the bottom of Ryder's Green Locks, where a fishing match was taking place. One angler in particular had positioned himself on the lock landing at just the spot I needed to put Twelfth of Never's bow to allow Steve and Pete to jump off and deal with an errant Wheelie-bin that was blocking the entrance to the lock. (If you live at no. 22 in one of the surrounding streets, I know where your missing bin is!). Wien  the hazard had been removed and the lock made ready I had no alternative but to put the tiller hard over and give the engine some welly in order to get into the lock, stirring up a mass of evil-looking black sludge in the process.

No words were said, but looking back from the lock I saw the angler remove his keep-net from the water, which was once, presumably, full of the day's catch but  now full of said sludge! He shook his head and began packing up his gear, presumably to move to a better spot, where he should have been in the first place! (I got my comeuppance later!)

An angler who has learned his lesson?

There were no further problems on the flight and we were soon at Pudding Green Junction and turning onto the New Main Line. Our passage of the Walsall Canal had been far more trouble-free than I'd expected, but better was to come with this spectacular welcome to the city in the skies above Brum!

There was even plenty of space in my favourite city-centre mooring on the Oozells Street loop, where we tied up for the night, with this view from the bow.

The view from Oozells Street