Wootton Wawen Friday 24 July 2015

Overnight the wind dropped and with it the sound of the motorway, a Kate hire boat came up late in the evening, it turned out they had left the river at 8 am that morning. We also had a boat drop in behind us and they set off at 8 am this morning, I am not sure if it was raining then or not as I hadn’t looked but it was before 9 am.

We set off at 10 am with full waterproofs, I started the engine and went out to set the lock only to see a young lady there waiting for a boat to come up which was very useful and we had a good but wet run all the way to Lowsonford where they and the other boats we met had overnighted (new word).

By the few spaces in Lowsonford it must have been quite full, we were then met by the Gormley statue by the lock.(it the one on the right) I am surprised that CRT didn’t insist on a lifejacket and Hi Vis Jacket being painted on as it is so close to the lock. I must say it looks a very well made piece of work and a novel idea but I still think its in the wrong place and could well distract boaters who should be concentrating on on the boat in the lock.

Below Lowsonford all the locks were against us and we decided to pull over for lunch below Bucket Lock, this lock is directly on the end of Yarningale Aqueduct with its cast iron trough. While we sat eating lunch and hoping the rain may stop another hire boat came passed and then a little later one came up. It was a long lunch break and about 5 pm the rain stopped so we set off again. Lock 35 was still with us and we met a hire boat coming up just after 36 so that helped us on our way. It wasn’t long before the rain started again but I wanted to be at Wootton Wawen tonight so that we are ahead of the hire boats tomorrow. One of the looks is in urgent need of a good bricklayer as it has a couple of courses missing at the lower water level. I like the mirrored glass in the windows at the house by Preston Bagot lock and couldn’t resist taking this very poor photograph of myself in the window. A house a little further along has even got a sheep on their balcony but it didn’t appear very lively, maybe it was due to the poor weather. We carried on in the rain to Wootton Wawen and as I poked my nose through bridge 53 I could see that the visitor moorings looked pretty full and were all under trees, I hate the sound of rain dripping on the roof from trees, it just goes on and on, I am OK with rain, but drips are something else so we reversed back almost to bridge 53 and moored there for the night.

Today’s Journey 5¾ Miles, 15 Locks in 4½ hours but we started at 1000 hrs and finished at 1830 hrs.