Today we have done a 5 mile 4 lock trip (2 locks twice that is) from here to Barton Turns and back. We are moored in exactly the same spot as we were last night only the other way round, obviously.
This trip, which took 2.5 hours including a water stop when we did it last December, today took 3.5 hours and we got the water while waiting in the queue for Barton Turns Lock without losing our place!
There were 3 boats in front of us on the way to Tatenhill Lock. The lock approach there is quite short but would have accommodated most of us if it hadn’t been for a CRT barge moored there. The bank along there is not really conducive to mooring up and I had to leap off with the centre rope and walk along with it until we could breast up to the barge.
We were following two Canaltime boats who were joined at the hip! After ascending the lock the first one, instead of carrying on to the next lock, waited for the second one to come up before they continued. This meant they arrived at Barton Turns Lock at the same time instead of being staggered.
They all spent so much time titting about getting back on and getting underway after the lock that we had nearly caught up before they had even left! When we got to the next lock we had time to get our water while we were in the queue. But as we were only going to go to Barton Marina to turn round we let another Canaltime which had now caught us up go first.
On the way back to the lock after turning we encountered another Canaltime who, despite the fact that he wasn’t on the lock approach, indeed he was still moored with three ropes some way from the lock, told us he was next but we could pull in just before the lock. Very nice of him I’m sure!
However, he decided to do the decent thing and let us go first. He must have heard what Ken said about him not even being on the f***ing lock approach! At Tatenhill Lock for the second time we caught up with the lovely Asian family with really polite children who had been coming up at Barton when we were going down.
Eventually we had cleared the lock and came back to Branston and as I say are moored in the same place we were last night. After mooring we walked to Morrisons for a few bits which turned into 2 rucksacks full again! On the way back we stopped at the Blacksmith’s Arms.
This evening Ken has been fishing, hoping to improve on last night’s performance. He lost 2 large fish (he said they were large anyway) and a load of tackle along with one of them!
Tomorrow we are off back to Willington.
