After travelling in the Far East last year, I returned to my mooring to find that the Aylesbury Arm was the subject of a planned stoppage from the beginning of October to the end of December. (A stoppage is where a waterway is closed for navigation for a period.) After that there were stoppages planned in both directions at the junction at the top of the arm from early January to the end of March. In total therefore it seemed as though I would not be able to cruise in my boat for about six months. As I had not decided whether to travel in this country or abroad this year, this was no great hardship.
Then I went up to Scotland for Ani Sherab Zangmo's ordination - a fantastic weekend. Whilst I was there, I learnt by email that one of the locks on the arm had collapsed completely - the wall on one side fallen into a hole that had opened up underneath it. So travel on the arm was going to be impossible for the foreseeable future. So back I go to Aylesbury to learn more about the unfolding saga.
The Canal and River Trust, in conjunction with various other interested bodies proposed providing a lift out of those boats that wanted to be free to cruise this summer, with a lift in at another location on the system. As there were a large number of winter moorers in the basin, this was anticipated as a major operation. The end result was that yesterday and today 21 or so boats were craned out of the basin; loaded onto a specialist extending lorry; and moved 20 miles to the south end of Milton Keynes, and craned back into the canal. As these were (largely) residential, people were concerned that the shift go smoothly, and were anxious about the operation.
The biggest problem in the entire operation was that the first trip of the third (the last) lorry had a tire blow out on its trailer en-route. This was not as bad as it sounds, as the trailer could operate on two rear axles, rather than three, but did mean there was a limit on the weight it could carry, which also meant there needed to be a little reorganisation of the order the boats were lifted out.
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| Preparing the crane and the first lorry |
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| Setting the slings |
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| And up my home goes!!! |
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| Manoevering the load for the lorry. |
Anyway, I am now at Fenny Stratford on the Grand Union, unable to return to my moorings (which I am still having to pay for) until the arm is repaired. The good news is that the current estimate of when this might happen is the August bank holiday.
