The Stratford Canal

Wednesday saw us continue on down the Stratford canal towards Lapworth junction. We dithered about mooring before the Lapwoth flight of locks and so missed a very good spot. Thus we were committed to the flight and as the locks were very close together there would be no possibility to stop overnight.
These locks are pigs as the paddle gear on the bottom gates are nigh on impossible to operate so Keith had to come forward on each one to assist. They also have very fast flowing overflows from the large side pounds that are a feature on this flight. As soon as the bow emerges from the lock the side wash takes it such that you can't line up for the next lock. The only way to beat this is to let the force of the water take the boat to the side and then push off the bow, engage forward gear and hope that you can maneuver into the next lock before you get caught again. All good fun as we were being chased down the flight by a hire boat with a crew of four who insisted on grabbing a lock if a boat was coming the other way. Some choice language was heard! Then to top it all, it started to rain.
At last we reached the bottom and was able to dump our rubbish and began to replenish the fresh water tank with a trickle of water. It didn't take long to abandon this attempt and slide past the pretty barrel roofed lock keepers cottage towards our overnight mooring on the Grand Union canal.

We planned to eat aboard this evening but we were both knackered so the easy option was to visit the nearby Navigation Inn that turned out to be a good move.