Access
Pilots Access The link between the two worlds The territories of exploration are divide by time, regulations and established behaviours that enable things to go as they have gone. We cross over, can go back and forth Access is of utmost importance. If we can.t establish independent entrance points then we will at the mercy of the lock keepers. The tide already holds us to a timetable, we do not want to be bound to a human one as well. We must go when it flows; is high enough to hold us and tame enough to steer. The lock keepers hold the gates well and have become accustomed to the way in which they do things. This is all well and good. We met with resistance, distrust, suspicion. -- The slipways are in a state of disuse, forgotten and buried under years of mud. The mud banks act as natural deterrents to Homo sapien water entry. The main lock is open three hours before high water, then it closes. We have developed some tools and techniques that extend times, entry points and range of access to the New cut and River Avon. We have invented and renovate access points and also extended the function of existing barriers. Notes for general access: Many of the points require a degree of walking; vessels can be heavy and cumbersome. Using a wheeled contraption for the vessel would greatly reduce the unpleasantness of entering water from unclassified or abandoned access points. Carry extra lengths of rope, these will aid you in lowering, or hauling the vessel out of high banked places (the distance between water and bank is relative to the tide timetable determined by various gods). All manoeuvres can be reversed aside from mud launching. All can be done by one person, but are much easier with two. --
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