Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Hatton Locks again

On Thursday, we started earlyish under lowering skies. There were few boats around. NB Koffee and Kream was ahead of us, but he joined another boat at Hatton Top Lock, so, after a short wait to see if another boat should come along, we carried on down alone.

Sculpture below top lock
At the second lock, however, we realised there was another craft behind us, just entering the top lock, so we waited for them, and were in due course joined by NB Bascote. The crew were a nice couple who'd been on the canals full time since 1990. He used a bike to speed up and down between locks, setting them up ahead of the paired boats, then flying back to help close the lock they were leaving, so I did no more of the to-ing and fro-ing I'd started to do.


It rained on and off, but from about half way down, it rained hard, very hard, very, very hard! We were all soaked through by the time we got to the bottom. We drove on past the Saltisford Arm, moored, had a hot shower, put on dry clothes, and enjoyed an indulgent fry-up for lunch! The descent had taken us three hours again, made quicker and all the more enjoyable by the couple on NB Bascote.

We stayed where we were moored for the rest of the day and the night, though the rain had stopped and the sun come out as soon as we'd moored! My cold hadn't gone, but thankfully I was well enough to have done the locks and endured the rain.

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