We set off just before 8 this morning and it was already warm, we passed Lady Esther, basking in the morning sunshine. Angie & Dave are continuing to Hampton Court and into London and we are off down the River Wey.
We cruised to the first lock knowing it would be on self service until the lock keeper starts at 9. What we didn't expect though was for the emergency button on the electronic panel to be flashing. The lock was full (and should have been left empty), I had a press of a few buttons and tried to open the gates but nothing was happening. After watching three blokes the other day manually operate a lock when the power had gone off, I really wasn't up for that. There was a very nice triple deck cruiser, who had pulled out behind us as we had approached the lock, but surprisingly no-one had got off it. I went and explained the problem and asked if they had any idea, to say they were unhelpful is probably giving them some credit. I rand the EA phone number and explained the problem, they said they would get someone to ring me back, I explained to the cruiser crew that I was waiting for a return call. We weren't overly concerned as the lock keeper would be on at 9. Eventually a couple from the cruiser went for a wander to the control panel, stood looking at it, never said a word to me and then wandered off. They approached a chap walking his dog on the towpath and asked him if he knew, he just happened to be the lock keeper, but was actually on leave. I told him to leave it and we would wait but he went and got his keys and undid the back of the panel, pressed a few buttons, then raised the sluices again and low and behold the gates opened. Hindsight is wonderful I said to John afterwards if we had been on a normal lock I would have just gone through everything again, but because the 'emergency' light was lit it threw me into thinking something major might be wrong!
We were soon on our way and after that had quiet cruise passing a variety of houses along the way, including houseboats. We continued to Shepperton Lock where we moored below the lock to have a look around, by now the temperature was 33 degrees and we decided to call it a day and move onto the Wey tomorrow. We had a wander round to the lock on the Wey this afternoon and got the form to fill in for tomorrow. The River Wey and Godalming Navigations are National Trust owned so we have to have a visitor pass and pay a fee for the pleasure of cruising them, we do get a 10% discount though as we are National Trust members. We also measured our air draft this afternoon as there is a very low bridge approaching Godalming, the bridge is 6' 4" we measure 6' 2", so its going to be close, but John is saying we have a half empty water tank and the water levels will be lower as we have had no rain, so I think we will be giving it a go, with me sat in the bow as we go under!
We are moored opposite the weir at the top of Shepperton lock and I had to call in Sainsburys at Staines to get some more used bags.Hope the new covers get used on the Wey
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