Spring has arrived, I hope.

Another beautiful day, I set off about 10am for the short run up to Berkhampstead and as I was preparing my first lock of the day (58) a family on holiday arrived going my way, lovely, shared the locks and I had very little to do as there were four of them, so me and dad, who was of course the skipper, had time for chats in the locks.

This is me following along just after leaving our first lock together, the crew walking ahead to set the next lock, mum's in front but masked by the other two very helpful teenagers.

The pound (stretch between locks) was very low between locks 57 & 56 with all the moored boats leaning over , I was still following along and we both kept well in the middle although still touched bottom a few times, I was grateful nothing was coming the other way, getting into the lock was hard work for me, the boat normally glides in slowly but it came to a halt and I was struggling to pull it in, I thought maybe I was rubbing on the cill but once I'd got it in I discovered the reason, I'd knocked it into reverse as I got off the blooming thing so I was pulling against the engine on tickover in reverse, lesson learnt there I thought, be careful with the controls when getting off.

Somewhere along this stretch I saw Diane and Ray, bloggers on N.b.Ferndale, Diane was walking along the towpath windlass in hand and we said hello,as you do, as I cruised past her and I thought I know that face, racking my brains, then I saw the boat coming towards me and read the name, looked up and saw Ray, ah haa I thinks, now I know, I shouted "I read your blog", with a smile he said "do you" and that was that, briefest of meetings but with 2,000 miles of canals I am amazed that I have already seen four boats I know from other blogs.

I had reached my intended mooring for the night just before Berkhampstead, so I said goodbye to my locking partners and I moored up. This afternoon I had a short wander along the towpath, I was intending to go further but got chatting to another boater and ended up turning round and heading back to the boat after talking to him for about an hour, I then did a bit of prep work for a bit more painting, it's never ending, but little and often works for me,

Tonights mooring.






Totals  Today: 1 mile : 3 Locks