Date - 23 04 10 Day - Friday Start - 0850 Bottom of Hatton End 1430 Lowsonford
Last night we were moored up with slack lines and hard aground but during the evening the pound rose by a good 4 inches so by the time we went to bed we were on an even keel. While we were eating dinner a boat came down the flight which set the locks in our favour. It wasn't the quietest of moorings with background traffic noise, the odd train and this morning a mixture of the dawn chorus and vans on the industrial estate opposite. This morning we were away in reasonable time at ten to nine, we didn't want anyone slipping by and turning all the locks. We were almost half way up the flight when we met a single hander coming down, so at least he had half the flight with him. He told us that he had met two boats who had moored half way up the flight over night so we only had a few more with us and he was right. After turning a couple of locks we saw two boats coming down by the BW Hatton works, so at least we could leave gates open. As we passed the steerer of Button End called out that he had been following our blog. We now had the locks with us and a couple of gates open right up to the workshops. Things changed on the bend and again it was turning locks but then another boat started down the flight which set us up to finish. The weather was just about right for working the flight, bright and clear with no wind, nice and warm but not to hot. It had taken us just over 3 hours of steady plodding along. Once clear of Hatton we started to discuss which way to go and decided that Stratford would be our destination. As we passed the WDYC I noticed that they still has several narrow boats sitting on the hard following blacking. I failed to turn left into Kingswood in one go, but I blame it on the boat moored near the mouth who was running his engine in gear sending a flow across the cut. Once on the Stratford Canal we found the locks all with us and we even met about 3 boats coming towards us. We have moored for the night opposite the Fleur de Lays at Lowsonford at about four thirty pm. Once moored I set to patching up some more of the flaking roof in the warm afternoon sunshine You will find our latest position and all our past travels on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/ -- Brian
