Bartimaeus

Yesterday we moved from our quiet mooring to the moorings at Hawford Lock.  We knew this would make us more accessible for our afternoon guests.  When they arrived they helped us through the two locks on to the River Severn.  We turned upstream for a short cruise before returning to the locks again.

We worked our way back up the locks facing backwards.  There's nowhere to turn before going back up the remaining six locks, so we wanted to be facing the right way.

This morning we were just getting ready to depart as several bunches of kids from the school across the canal were setting off on their own boating adventures.  Fortunately they headed the other way, so we didn't have to contend with them.

I walked to the first lock to get it ready just as another boat arrived at the mooring - we were going to get lock buddies.  Clare negotiated with them to go in together.  Their driver was delighted to be sharing a double lock - he knew the theory but had never had the chance before.  I was very glad we'd done the locks-in-reverse trick last night.  It would still have worked this morning, but might have required a lot of explanation.

At the exit to the second lock we made it clear that they should go out first and leave me to tidy up the lock behind them.  We were sure they would drive on much faster than we intended to.

Clare took us on to the river, turning upstream again in to the section we had cruised the night before.  The same pair of egrets were soon visible, but they continued to stay well away.

We dropped the speed to silent levels again.  I was pleased to see that we were still making reasonable progress, and in the midday sun we were using less power than the solar panels were collecting.  We took turns to drive while the other had lunch - a very relaxed cruise.

Clare was driving again as Holt Lock came in to sight.  We weren't intending to enter the lock though.  Clare steered firmly to the bank hoping to indicate to the lock-keeper that we were heading for the moorings.  Before we reached them, we saw the red light change to green and the gates start to open.  We only saw three other boats all day, so the lock-keeper was probably glad of a reason to do something, even if it turned out to be fruitless.

Our mooring is a peaceful one, between the lock and the Holt Fleet Bridge designed by Thomas Telford.  The gentle breeze and strong sun made running a load of washing seem like a good idea.  The sun provided the power for the machine, and got the load dry by the end of the day.