On Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours re-watering Jannock and preparing to leave the mooring whilst Brenda performed some essential retail therapy in Hemel. On her return we had lunch with Julian T. and then bade him farewell and set off North-ish at about 2 pm. Destination for this summer is Rufford wharf or thereabouts by July. The first three locks were in our favour as they all have to be left empty. We stopped for a chat with Debbi and Simon in Berko before continuing our journey in bright sunshine, this was the first public appearance of exposed Graham legs powering the recently overhauled lock wheeling bike for this year. The forecast had been for strong winds and showers but they were not in evidence. At Gas 1 lock (51) I was caught out by a booby trapped gate paddle left by a southbound boat. The paddle was fully up and the anti-vandal lock was on. I did not check the pawl (big mistake!) and the paddle dropped rapidly when I undid the padlock. After a short period of adrenalin stabilisation I continued to work us through the lock and up the flight. After Northchurch lock, I cycled ahead to try and identify a suitable overnight spot but the combination of Dudswell lock being set ready for us with the gate open and the short distance to the mainline railway urged us to continue through the lock. Above the lock the railway drops into a cutting and we found Fair Fa moored and so we pulled in behind her and enjoyed a very sociable evening with Pat and Sheila. Finally got to bed about midnight, just as the inconsiderate [EMAIL PROTECTED] moored behind us switched off his generator.
Sunday morning arrived bright after a very wet and windy night. Pat and Sheila set off to walk the dogs so Dudswell top lock had been prepared by them when we arrived. Onto the summit through Cowroast lock and we had a very short period of light rain accompanied by a well spaced club fishing competition. The participants were very friendly and did not mind the boats passing at all. Even when we met a South bound wide beam boat in one guys swim there were no rude comments or scowls. Must be an attitude brought on by everywhere else being closed to fishing at the moment. Along the summit Brenda spotted 6 different Kingfishers all flashing a brilliant vivid blue as they sped along in front of us. At the Bulbourne windy point we had to wait while a tug from Cowroast turned to return to his mooring. The fisherman there pointed out that the tug had peeled back the steel piling on the far side of the cut in his efforts to get round. It must be nice to have that sort of power available when you want it! We passed down the Marsworth flight solo passing three sets of Southbound boats ascending the locks. Into the Anglers for a wonderful Sunday lunch, nine different veg with my roast beef and we were almost back at Jannock when it started to rain. We sat out the worst of the storm inside Jannock and then continued our journey once it had passed. I managed to complete the day by doing a car shuffle without getting wet when all around me were dark clouds and deep puddles. We managed to get home and had the car unloaded before the heavens opened again so I think we were very lucky to have a good weekend boating without getting drowned in the process. Graham www.jannock.org.uk [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
