After a pleasant afternoon’s drive from Uxbridge to Black Jack’s Lock, I tried to moor Bristol Fashion but the canal was so silted up that I couldn’t get close to the towpath. The canals are saucer shaped, deeper in the middle and often quite shallow at the edges and it’s not uncommon to get stuck on the banks and to have to use a boarding plank to get on and off. I’d already got stuck twice that day and had to use the boat pole to push the boat back into deeper water. I jumped off the boat, knocked a couple of stakes into the ground, tied her up and then tried to jump back on board. As I stepped forward the boat drifted backwards and I missed the gunwhale, falling in the water up to my knees.
Funny thing is, this is the exact spot where six months ago I dropped my camera in the canal. Maybe Black Jacks Lock is the Bermuda Triangle of the Grand Union Canal.
