Having been promised a scorcher, I got suncream on before getting ready to set off. People were about to leave the lock ahead so I went up to ask them to leave the gate open for us, while Shane cast off. When I got there, someone asked if we needed both gates open and I said no so she shut her far side gate and hopped on. And that would save me walking round. Then I looked for Shane to see another boat was coming in and was ahead of Shane. They had not been in sight when I set off. I apologised that we had a shut gate and offered to walk round but the driver said she could “shimmy over” so she got tucked in behind the closed gate and let Shane in. The man helping me work the locks momentarily worried me and himself by looking a bit dizzy at the lockside. He explained he was getting used to new varifocals he had got the day before. Everything ran very smoothly and feeling they had jumped ahead they let us go out first and he said he would deal with closing the gates. I thanked him very much for his help, making the lock nice and easy for me and he said, “you need to learn to drive then” I said I did drive sometimes. We expected to share the next few locks with them but at the next one a lone boater was preparing to go in and eagerly signalled we should share the lock, so it was good bye to the one behind, having allowed us ahead, and the rest of the afternoon we shared with James, who had just started out on his boat two days earlier and was thankful for help through the locks and any advice we had for him.