Today didn’t quite go as we had hoped, It was just after 10am when we went to set off, the same time as the boat moored between us and the locks, so we followed him to the bottom lock. He was sort of single handed, I say sort of as he had got a friend to come and help him up the flight, the friend was 75 and never worked a lock before, it didn’t go well, Diana tried to explain what was needed but by lock 9 they had parted company and the friend was heading back to his car. The single hander, well he was now said he was only doing 4 locks when actually he miss counted and moored below lock 5. To give him his due, after mooring up he had locks 5 and 4 ready for me. We did actually get along better after his ex friend had gone home. The other thing we hadn’t planned on was two pounds fully drained, the first between 8 and 9 but that is very short with a long pound above, but then 2 to 3 was dry as well, this meant letting water down from the summit. Once in the top lock Diana nipped off to post a letter and I struggled to get the top gate open, it had been leaking badly when I entered the lock, once open I couldn’t close it again. I don’t carry a rake but poking round with the pole I could feel the obstruction under the gate and by opening the gate a bit more I was able to pull it from under the gate and up with a boat hook. It was a car tyre. We had planned to take water above the top lock but as we came up in the lock another boat arrived and pulled onto the water point to fill up.
Just as we set off the CRT chap turned up to refill the top two pounds as someone had phoned it in, so he was surprised to see us just leaving. I explained it all to him and we were on our way. A bit long winded but that was basically our morning. As we came slowly up the flight Atherstone Castle was clearly visible in the distance.
Once we were away from the locks we passed one of The Rothern Groups new boats looking very smart on her moorings. Academies was moored outside there yard and there is a blue top on the hard being worked on.
We only planned to go a short way after this and moored for the night by the winding hole just prior to bridge 33.
Todays Journey
4 miles, 11 locks in 4 hours
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