Farewell to Longwood and unexpected delays

Much better day, no rain, no wind and plenty of sunshine. This must bring the public out, surely. And it did, not quite in hordes, but enough to make the stall holders happy. The classic cars turned up, as well as a canoe loving dog to entertain us all. Shame we weren't going to be around to watch the dog show, though. That didn't start until 12.30pm and we knew we would be long gone by then.

Captain Ahab and Helen doing a good job plying their trade.

 Having said our farewells to old friends and new, we left the mooring around 11.30am. John Bayliss from ECP&DA helped hold the gates open, which saved Ian getting the pole out again.

JB on the L and us being watched by the public.

Farewell Longwood festival.

Having done the mile pound in around 20 minutes, we knew the flight would be against us as a lone female boater had left the boat club around 9ish. I was that surprised, then, when Ian came back to tell me she had only just gone into the third lock. It was the trouble she had trying to keep the lock gates open by herself, as well as rubbish round the prop, which meant delays, all of 2 hours to be precise! Ian went down the flight to help her in the end, which left me to come down a couple of locks on my own. Still one must help fellow boaters even though it did delay our passage somewhat. And then we had more delays when, going under a bridge near the Rushall junction, we about stalled the engine with something wrapping itself around the prop.

Doesn't look much but it was enough to nearly stall the engine.

Then we turned left at the Junction and more rubbish attached itself to the prop. This time we kept going knowing that Perry Bar locks weren't far off. Didnt bother to free the prop as I could just about handle the boat okay and quite pleased about this 'cause otherwise we wouldn't have had the help down Perry Bar flight. A vagrant (well he looked like one) attached himself to Ian and opened gates and dropped paddles all the way down. We expected him to ask for something in return, like a beer, but he informed us he was teetotal and just enjoyed helping people. What a nice man and just goes to show one can't always go by looks.

Perry Bar flight

Wish I got his name 'cause he was a lovely man.

So now we are moored at Witton having done 19 locks in 5.25 miles taking five and half hours. Finally Ian got to go down the weed hatch again. This time it was plastic bags, rope and wire as the culprit. So at least tomorrow we start with a clean prop, how long it will last is anyone's guess!