After our day of rest, we got up in good time to be first off, so we had the best chance of the locks being set in our favour.  We were just about to cast off when a boat went past…blast!  We held back and finished our morning cuppa, and waited for 15 mins.  Most of the locks today are duplicated, still narrow locks but there are two of them, side by side.  We ended up following two boats which meant that they all needed emptying and then filling.

In all we did 26 locks all going up, it’s not called Heartbreak Hill for nothing!

We managed to get to Harecastle tunnel before the 3pm cut off, where you’re guaranteed passage. Just as we arrived, the boats from the other direction were just exiting, we couldn’t have timed it any better.  It took 45 minutes to travel through the tunnel and Toby did a great job steering.  We made such good progress today, we decided to knock off early and moor up at 4pm