Windlass and Poo

This morning we came up the locks through Chester with Tony and Karina on NB No Brass  – it's much easier in the wide locks with two boats, and there's double the crew to work the paddles and gates. We met some interesting characters along the way. One of them, chatting to everyone at the penultimate lock, distracted Karina to the point that she knocked her windlass into the lock. I pushed on to set the final lock, leaving them to fish for the windlass with their Sea-Searcher magnet. They caught up, sans windlass and also sans magnet, which, having caught the windlass, had detached itself from its cord as it was being pulled up.

So Tony and I walked back to the lock with our Sea-Searcher, and began to fish. After a while he caught something, which turned out to be his magnet, attached to the windlass. Unfortunately, the windlass dropped off again just he was about to retrieve it – but at least he had his magnet back.

We decided to drop the lock – there were some swirling currents from the leaks in the gates, but it was easier to see exactly where we were fishing with the water down. After a while fishing with both magnets, I got the windlass, only for Tony to discover, as he removed it from the magnet, that this wasn't his windlass at all but one which clearly had been in the water for a considerable time! Eventually, after shifting to a slightly different place, I found Tony's. So we were up one windlass, assuming we can restore it to reasonable condition.

It was only after I'd come back on board that my best beloved pointed at my shoes with a shock-horror expression. I'd picked up some of the most disgusting stuff in the universe while windlass-fishing. Fortunately there was a water point just through the next bridge, so we stopped and I off-loaded all the boards where I had trod and gave them a thorough washing, along with my trainers.

Dog poo – don't you love it!