Tuesday 11 September 2012 Weltonfield

Yesterday afternoon we received the news that the Watford flight was closed until further notice due to a paddle failure in the flight so there was no point in setting off this morning. A friend who was waiting at the top of the flight kept us informed of progress and rang about 2 pm to say they were re-watering the flight. We set off slowly arriving at the top of the locks, 8th. in the queue at 3 pm. just as the first boat had come up.
After tying up and booking in with the lock keeper we set to with windlasses helping the waiting boats up and down the flight.
I think we probably helped 15 or more boats up and down before it was our turn to make our way down, there were only two more boats behind us. We cleared the flight at 1850 hrs. feeling like we had walked 5 miles. It was getting dusk when we moored a short way past the entrance to Weltonfield Marina on the first available stretch of piling. It wasn’t long before the hire boat that was following us pulled in just ahead of us and about 5 minutes later the last boat moored just ahead of them.