Sunday, 3 July 2016

As it turned out........

.......another short cruise to another pub.

My time was up at All Cannings this morning and the weather was dry and warm, so it was into short sleeves at last and after my normal Sunday fry-up breakfast I set off around 9:45 with my routine type of cruising plan in mind, that is set a final destination, with a couple of ‘maybe’ mooring stops if they look ok and there is space.

The final destination for this cruise was to be Devizes, but first I had a couple of swing bridges to deal with, the first being bridge number 129, with no-one either ahead or behind it was down to me to open and close it, on the K&A most of these are easy with landing points on the non-towpath control side, so I was soon through that one.
I then passed this little mushroom boat..........there’s not mushroom inside......boom boom, so sorry, some things have to be said J but it was a little cutie.
As I mentioned before, in some places along this pound the reeds encroach on the canal a fair way making it narrow, and because of their height difficult to see approaching boats on bends, so of course it was in one of these areas that I came bow to bow with a wide beam, I guessed it was his right of way, as he was bigger than me, and I had to reverse about four boat lengths to find a wider section to allow us to pass each other without plowing through the reeds, no time for pictures when these situations arise.

I could see a boat in the distance ahead and I was gaining on them and coming around the bend to swing bridge 133 he was just starting to go through, unfortunately his lady did not look back at all and closed the bridge after him, she was walking back across it as I approached the landing area but still did not see me at all, or if she did, chose to ignore me. After stopping to re-open it, I went through as a boat approached in the other direction so I was able to leave it open for him, so not all bad!

 I arrived at the visitor moorings at Horton outside ‘The Bridge Inn’ to find room for me so I decided to take advantage and stop there overnight, there was an obstruction somewhere under the water where I pulled in and as I was tying up the chap on the boat behind me came to apologise for not seeing me at the swing bridge, they had stopped for a drink, I told him it was ok but as I could not get my stern in to the edge I asked him if he would mind moving  back a bit, he didn't mind and moved for me, making amends for the earlier treatment, all was well with the world again!




Tonight's mooring:







Totals today: 3.5 miles : 2 swing bridges

No comments:

Post a Comment