6th June 2015

We only managed six locks today but not one of them was set in our favour and we had to wait at most of them for other boats going up.  Quite a few visitors from overseas on a narrow boat for the first time.  We particularly liked the one who strolled up said good morning and then walked away saying “Well I’ll leave you to it!”  We politely explained a little of the etiquette at the next lock.  A close second was our last lock of the day (23) where someone had left the top gate open, both paddles open and the ratchets up.

The locks on this section can be particularly tricky because there are some quite strong cross currents encountered when entering the locks on the way up as a result of side streams which apparently come all the way from Horseshoe Falls.  The wind was also very strong today, probably around force 5.  These two factors coupled together made life a challenge.  I misjudged the first one but managed the others a lot better.  The wind and current had a noticeable affect when going through narrow sections at bridges where we seemed to slow down quite markedly.

We should have had two hydraulic and one electric lifting bridges today but the second hydraulic one (21) is apparently now permanently open.  One boat had a big struggle at the first bridge ending up at an alarming angle across the canal when he tried to reverse having arrived too early. We realised that although it is quite easy to raise the bridge using the hydraulic assistance it takes a long time.  That was a helpful lesson as we were moored up watching at the time and when it was our turn we were well prepared.  Walking to the Dusty Miller pub for lunch enabled us to study the mechanism and technique for dealing with the electric road bridge where Romy had great fun stopping the traffic.

We moored for the night after bridge 24, but before the designated visitor moorings, and had a walk into Marbury to see another of the sandstone churches and some of the villages old buildings.