Good— and not so good—volunteers at Marple Flight

WE TOOK the Boy's boat down from Poynton to Portland Basin Marina for some work—excellently done—and returned it a week later, writes Paul Burke.

Descending, there were two volunteers on—both at the top end, and lamenting that all was quiet—who accompanied us down in Zen-like calm and tranquillity.

Three lock gates with only one gate paddle

Today we returned, several boats encountered in the locks going up and down, one immediately following us. The passage was much slower without the accomplished pair who helped us last weekend, and three locks had only gate paddles operative and were therefore slow.

The Boy's boat is only 44ft so no danger of swamping, so we were only slightly delayed by this. We started at 8.30, and reached the top just after 12, just in time to deter a bumbling jobsworth of a volunteer from padlocking the top gate. We told him about the following boat, and he grumbled that he'd have to have a late lunch...

Dysfunctional website

From CaRT's hideously dysfunctional website:

'Marple Lock Flight—Daily

Open from 8:30am to allow passage through the flight. Last entry to the flight will be at 12 noon, and all boats must be off the flight by 4pm'.

So how had this chap got into his head that he could not only knock off at 12—as a volunteer, he can go home whenever he likes—but that nothing was allowed to move without his presence?  And what would have happened had we been five minutes later?  Hint—there's a hacksaw on the boat.