Playing with the big boys is all very well although in truth it would be better if on the long stretches we could keep up with them, but we can’t so we (mostly) don’t try. This removes one kind of stress and adds a very different kind; that of not knowing exactly when are going to get to anywhere.
Instead of travelling faster than we want to, just to keep up, we simply bob along enjoying our own company until of course we arrive at a lock to discover the ships have long gone and the lock is in exactly the opposite state of operation to the one we need it to be in. In that case, as we did this morning, we must wait for as much as a few hours for sufficient traffic to come along to justify filling and re-emptying the lock or until the kindly lock keeper takes pity on us and operates the lock anyway. “Justify” is an interesting word in this context because the volume of water in a two hundred by twenty by fifteen metre deep lock is significantly more than we use while having a short, sharp shower, or even hosing the garden for an hour or two, and it’s a bit difficult to see any "justification" for letting us through alone, although we are certainly glad they do.
Thanks to the lack of vagary in the metric system if one were to idly multiply the depth by the width by the length of the lock, one would know exactly how many litres of water it contains, and presumably this volume could be expressed it in terms of how may times it would take to empty to fill Sydney Harbour. Someone clever might even be able to calculate just how big the tap is that enables them to fill in a ten minutes or so, but it’s suffice to say;- “VERY”.
Even when water is not in short supply, it’s difficult not to feel a little special, if not quite embarrassed during those times when we are the sole occupant, but it’s also quite nice not to be staring at the back of a ship with a four metre diameter propeller intent on washing us over the wall!
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