Blue Lias Friday 9 September 2016

At 9 am this morning Julian drew up behind us and after a bit of a natter we set off north along the GU. At Wigrams turn we turned right to remain on the GU  and headed to Calcutt Locks. When we arrived a boat was just coming out of the lock and two boats ahead of us were making their way down. There were boat travelling both up and down the flight so we met boats at each lock which meant we didn’t need to turn any. One of the boats coming out was a Willow Wren training boat from Stockton. They have a training centre and have opened up the old arm at Nelson’s wharf under the old Nelson’s cement works railway line.

The Boat Inn which stands beside the canal at Stockton is now home of the Spice Traders, they use to be in the Wharf at Fenny Compton.

Arriving at the top of the Stockton flight a boat was just coming out of the top lock, but the 2 ahead of us going down were only at the lock below, there were only 3 people between the 2 boats and the lady crew of one of them looked to be doing all the work but I think the lock were already full for them, where as we had to turn 5 of them. When we arrived at The Blue Lias there were already several boats there and although we will be continuing north when we leave we actually went down to turn round before coming back to moor bank side.  This was to make it easier for our friend Connie who is spending the weekend with us to get on and off, as she is still recovering from a knee replacement.

Today’s Journey  6 miles, 11 locks, 1 Junction in 4 hours.

There will be no more reports until we are travelling again on Monday.