Hatton Locks today, and the forecast wasn’t promising: heavy showers all day. There was rain in the early hours, but by the time we were up and about it was quite nice. We left our mooring about 8.30, Adrian bringing the boat and me walking ahead with a windlass. The top lock needed filling, and I also walked down and filled the second one. The boat was in the top lock at about 8.40 and we began our 146ft descent to Warwick. The cafe, which is between the first and second locks, wasn’t even open yet.
While we were in the second lock, I saw a volunteer lock keeper walking up and she began filling the third lock. Then she came to have a chat and was really nice. Before long another lockie arrived and they said they’d set ahead for us. After the first four locks there’s a bridge and a bend, and the next lock is by the wharf buildings that CRT use as offices and I think a training centre.
This is the top of the ‘thick’ of the flight, where the locks are close together. Another lockie had joined, and there was an uphill boat, so we waited for them to come up and swapped.
It was sunny and I’d already taken my jacket off. It was windy though, making some of the transitions from lock to lock a bit tricky, and Adrian was cold standing on the back of the boat. We were handed over to a lockie who’s based at the bottom of the flight, so he was setting ahead for us. A bit further down, the locks get more spaced out, and for some of them I went ahead to get the next one ready.
About two thirds of the way down, yet another volunteer turned up, and he took on the task of setting the next lock. This meant both the other lockie and I could work the bottom paddles, which is a bit quicker than just doing one. It all meant that we never had to wait for a lock to be ready, they were always waiting with a gate open. The sky had begun to look ominous, and about three locks from the bottom there was a very heavy shower. But it really only lasted for the one lock, before the blue sky came back. By the time we got to the final lock of the flight, we’d pretty much caught up with the lockie setting ahead. We were in the bottom lock by 11.10, so the flight took two and a half hours, which is good going.
We thanked our volunteer helpers who scuttled off to their little office and their kettle. We were carrying on round the corner, but as we approached Budbrooke Junctiom a boat came out and began to turn around. We waited while he did his thing.
There was also a boat waiting to come out of the Saltisford Arm. These days, the Grand Union is the turn to the left at this junction, and the arm is just an arm. Before all these canals merged, the Hatton Flight was on the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, which ended where the arm is. What we were about to turn onto used to be the Napton and Warwick Canal.
We carried on a little further and moored on the Cape moorings. There were only a couple of boats here, and during the day they’ve gone and been replaced by others. We moored up in brilliant sunshine, and then within minutes it was chucking it down again. It’s continued like this all afternoon, alternating between being really sunny and really wet.
This afternoon, we took Macc to the vet just a couple of minutes walk from the moorings. His eyes still haven’t cleared up, so we wanted to get them checked out. The vet checked for scratches and ulcers by putting a green dye in his eyes but found nothing, so concluded it was just conjunctivitis. The treatment is a tiny tube of ointment (costing £42!) which we have to try to put in his eyes between two and five times a day. It’s not an easy process! Hopefully it will start working in a couple of days. Again, we got there and back in the sunshine, with rain almost as soon as we arrived back at the boat.
3 miles, 21 locks. (37 miles, 90 locks)