Pictures from adventure with friends

Here are some pictures I have extracted from my camera since my friends, Roger and Shirleyann Andrews joined me on my cruise:

I had been anxious about the Hatton Flight of Locks as they were my first really big flight of broad locks (21 in all). However it turned out to be a brilliant experience. The first picture is of Roger steering my boat. He was very good at it and we shared the steering and lock working, whilst Shirleyann went ahead, setting locks in advance. It worked really well.

The second photo shows how busy it became, particularly when 2 pairs of boats meet in a short pound! We shared working most of the flight with a lovely friendly boat with a very knowledgeable skipper. He showed me the best way to work broad locks, both up and down hill. He also taught me how to do synchronised boating, where we both left one lock at the same time, came apart slightly in the pound and then came together to enter the next lock simultaneously. That way no ropes were needed at all. Great fun and I managed not to damage him at all!

Then after cruising the South Stratford canal and spending time in Stratford itself, we launched ourselves onto The beautiful Avon, my first ever river.

It is beautiful but you also have to treat rivers with a great deal of respect, especially around weirs. This poor boat came to grief 18 months ago when its inexperienced crew took it out when the river was in flood.

The River Severn next and beside it, the Avon looked like a mere stream. This is how small my boat looked on it!

And lastly but very much not leastly, here are my intrepid crew who left me to go back to Devon yesterday. More pics to follow..