I went back to the newly discovered slipway and checked the windlass, the padlock and took some photos.

The first bit of bad news is that the windlass is seized and is inoperable without some serious maintenance and by that I don't mean a liberal spray of WD40 although that would probably help.

So Naiad's haul-out will have to be carried out with car power only. Shouldn't be a problem although I was looking forward to using the windlass.

The second bit of bad news is that the Environment Agency key I have doesn't seem to fit the padlock on the gate at the top of the slipway although I think it should. It does fit the water point so it isn't that the key is out of date.

The good news is that I can get a suitable key from the lock keeper.

The inoperable windlass.

It has its own small enclosure and is raised well able the level of the slip, I suppose to avoid getting flooded when the river levels are high.

The wear on the sides of the hole through which the ropes or cables passed shows that this used to be a working item and well worked at that.

The slip itself. On the lefthand side of the bank is a water point and also a pumping out station.

The water level is quite low as can be seen from this image but I think that there is still enough depth of water to achieve the desired result.