Thursday 16 Sept 2010 Above Wood Lock

We had some very heavy rain last night and quite low cloud but by this morning things had cleared out. A hire boat Harry came by and waited for a second boat in the top Cape lock so we thought we would wait a bit before setting off, mistake. The boat Harry waited for stopped at the water point, Harry still waited and then they backed up onto the moorings and tied up, so Harry went down alone, he was just entering the bottom lock as we were dropping down the top one. We turned the bottom lock and just as we entered we spotted someone drawing the top lock paddles so we waited. It was Josephine who had overnighted in the Saltisford arm.We then shared all the locks up to the top of Fosse where they moored for the night. As I approached the bridge by Tesco I was completely on the wrong line and unable to see through the bridge hole, I put my bows inline with the hole and put the power on to bring the back round, it was then that I saw another bow entering the other side of the bridge. I hit reverse which stopped us, but as the back was already heading over to the left it just continued. I was almost sorted out when the other boat backed up so I continued through the bridge, thanked the chap for backing up only to get reprimanded for going to fast round the bends. I had indicated to Josephine to hold back and told the oncoming boat he was waiting but by now he had no time for me, so he pulled his boat into the side and waited for Jennifer who was waiting on the other side of the bridge. Eventually Josephine stuck her nose round and crept through. After Jennifer moored up we continued up one more lock alone and moored for the night at around 2 pm. This gives us a bit of a chance to charge the batteries in the morning before we arrive at The Blue Lias for the weekend.