Lending a hand

This morning started quite bright and sunny. I walked back to the marina where the car was parked, and drove down to Pitstone Wharf, where there's a little car park right by the canal. From there I walked down to the bottom of the three Seabrook Locks, where I was meeting Les and Jaq on board Valerie, to help them up a few locks. Les isn't well, and much to his frustration can't do all the things he used to be able to. A couple of boats were coming down the first lock; at the second we had to wait while the local CRT chap ran some water down into the very low pound. Above the locks I swung the bridge. The lower of the first two Marsworth locks was empty, with a pair of boats coming down the one above.

We carried on past Marsworth Junction. I haven't been here since the new houses were finished. I actually quite like them; they're upside down, with bedrooms on the ground floor and a big open plan space upstairs with a cathedral ceiling. However, whether they suit Marsworth Junction is another question!

We went up one more lock, and moored by the reservoir. It had taken around two and a half hours, which wasn't bad considering the wait at the second lock. We sat out on the towpath to have lunch -- and at one point there was a brief shower of rain, even though the sky was mostly blue and the sun was still shining.

I said goodbye to Les and Jaq, glad to have been able to help in a small way. I'd got most of the way back to the car when the rain started in earnest, and I was a bit wet by the time I arrived at the car park. The whole stretch is about two and a half miles, and I'd walked it all in both directions so I've had good exercise today. The rain as I drove back to Cosgrove was quite heavy.

Back at Briar Rose, the solar panel had charged the batteries a bit during the morning, but not really enough. I also thought that if I ran the engine for a while it would give me some hot water, so I decided to go and turn around. I went down to the lock, turned just above, and then returned to the village. I moored before where I'd been last night, as it's a bit more open, and should be better if there's any more sunshine.

After I'd moored up, I was chatted to the people on a boat behind, Flora Dora, which I recognised from some of the St Pancras tidal Thames cruises we've done with Sue and Richard on Indigo Dream; it also turned out we'd probably met them at the Angel Canal Festival in London a couple of years ago. While I was talking to them, Linda and Richard (and Muffin) came past on Mary H, so they pulled in and we had a fifteen minute catch up; coincidentally, the other time we'd met them was when they came to see us at the Angel Festival!

A couple of hundred yards, 0 locks. (1 miles, 0 locks)