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We had a lie-in this morning and got up at 6:45 am.   But then it is the early bird that catches the worm for as I was musing the question of going out to get a morning paper a BW man in black came by and told us that if we went straight away, we could be roped past the obstruction.  So it was.  We were mobile in 1 minute and were first of the three boats waiting on our side.  The dredger and mud float were moored up over the top of the hole in the bottom of canal and there was just room to squeeze the boat around behind and through the bridge hole.  There appeared to be quite a few boats waiting to come through on the other side and Cowley Lock was manned by 4 BW chaps.   We learned that the damage was serious and that the canal will have to be closed and dammed off to rectify the problem, so the passge through was only possible while the engineers awaited the arrival of the heavy plant necessary.  This will all take a week or more and will seriously affect those wishing to travel to the Canalway Cavalcade event at Little Venice this coming weekend.  Our journey back to Harefield Marina was uneventful thereafter.