Brain failure.

Oh, dear....who forgot to put the tiller on??? Ian blames me but it was definitely him!. I mean, I was below getting my coat and he was bankside removing the bow rope and casting off! I untied the stern rope, went to take the tiller and where was it?...ah....still hanging up in the engine room, that's where! By now the bow was across the river (which still had quite a flow on) so a quick dash below to grab it, push it on onto the swan neck and, after Ian had leapt onto the stern, I pushed the throttle forward and the tiller hard to the left thereby avoided the far bank by a smidgen. Then a laugh heard from behind as this was witnessed by a boat owner who we had moored near to last night. Oh well, at least it made his day!

A dismal dank day but a very pleasant one nevertheless. Hardly any boat movement only a couple of cruisers met before Shifford lock and one below Northmoor. Only one lock on self-service, Shifford, with Rushy and Northmoor manned.

Rushy lock with the gate open ready for us.

The approach to Shifford lock has a huge weir to the right. Even with the fast flow, this wasn't really a problem but Ian did make an observation on the safety lines stretched across the weir. Only the one laying across the water and the only thing this line would do would be to maybe snag the propellor stopping the engine and putting you in even more danger.

We made it to Northmoor with minutes to spare before the lock keeper went off for lunch. In fact, the self-service board was up but he still did the lock. A cruiser turned up below lock as we departed but the lock keeper made it very plain that the Captain had to do this himself, much to his annoyance. "I am now at lunch," he said.

Weir below Northmoor lock. No wonder the flow had increased. It wasn't like that when we came up 8 days ago.

 Ian was going to take me out for a meal at Bablock Hythe.  11 miles and 3 locks from leaving this mornings mooring and it took us just over three hours to get there. Although the river had gone down a tad, the flow was still considerable so again we raced downstream. Tried to moor at the Ferryman but the bank was not in the best condition and even after Ian had managed to secure the bow to a post, I wasn't brave enough to leap across to do the stern rope. Ian managed to bring the back in enough for a plank to go across but before doing that decided to see what time the pub opened. Well, you wouldn't credit it, the closed on Tuesday sign was up and what day was this??? A blooming Tuesday. Looks like I'm going to have to get something out of the freezer instead. Because of the unsuitability of the mooring and for only another 30 minutes cruise we could be at Pinkhill. No brainer for me then. Pinkhill it was and maybe another sighting of Pinky the Owl.

And seen on route,