Hatton Lock 30

Today's Canal - Grand Union

We quickly dis covered this morning that neither of our phones had a signal. This was quite surprising as they are on different networks and also we were close to both a railway line and a motorway. The signal last night was not great but enough for simple tasks (we did not try streaming) At first we were confused by things not working (such as CanalMap for logging our position) and only after a few minutes chasing the wrong thing did we find that it was no signal. Furthermore we could not access any news or crosswords, let alone emails.

The forecast had given rain around lunch time and then showers off and on for the rest of the day. As we prepared to leave our overnight mooring, there was already more than a glimmer of sunshine.

Although we had moored rather close to the railway bridge we were not at all disturbed by it during the night.

Just on 10 o'clock we pushed off and immediately joined the Grand Union at Kingswood Junction, just beyond the railway.

By the time we reached Tom O' the Woods plenty of the sky had turned blue. We also remembered a fix so that we could run CanalMap and record our progress but all 'external' communication would have to wait, even at Hatton Station we could not find a signal.

 
Looking back along the straight at Rowington was a wonderful spring view.

Shrewley Tunnel is fairly short but was rather wetter than the others so far on this trip.

After about an hour and a half of rather pleasant cruising we arrived at the top lock of the Hatton flight - 21 locks in all. However, we planned to stop four locks from the bottom. Christine was determined to work lockside today having spent the previous two long flights on the back deck.

The Ham Baker, or 'candlestick' paddles are usually a bit easier to start than the more common ratchet types. However, perhaps with not having much use for the winter, they were still a bit of a challenge and Christine had to enlist (aka press gang) unsuspecting onlookers to lend a hand at some of them! So it was welcome to see a volunteer at the fourth lock. Actually there was a team of three on today but as it was around their lunch time we had a rotating set of faces for a while. They stayed with us until it was time to moor and were a consistently great help.

We had an occasional shower on the way down but that does not come out well on a photo so here is another one when the sun was back out again!

Below Lock 30 is a longer pound than elsewhere on the flight and often a popular lunch or overnight stop but today we had it all to ourselves, serving both purposes! We even had a promise that one of tomorrow's team might be tipped off to look our for us when we are ready to set off down the remaining four locks! 

7.4 Miles - 17 Locks