Seend Cleeve

We made the great discovery today that our camera which we dropped in the water several weeks ago (and since replaced) is fully functional again.   It has been residing in the airing cupboard all these weeks.  We are now hoping that Geoff's phone which is the current occupant of the airing cupboard will also recover.  It was sod's law that meant it was in his pocket when he fell in the canal last Monday.  He very rarely carries it but because he was walking the previous stretch, which had been very shallow when we traversed it previously, he made the sensible decision to take it with him!!!!
We left our extremely pleasant mooring soon after 8 this morning.  The only slight drawback to the mooring was the ledge which meant we were living at a slight angle all the time.

Boat of the day(enlarge to see the detail)

I liked this one too

Not far to the first lock at Bradford-upon-Avon.  

The approaches to some locks are quite forbidding

and gloomy when you get in

but half way up the world begins to emerge again

and lo and behold a pretty scene awaits.

We stopped to top up with water, the elsan disposal out of action again.  Whilst watering I nipped to Sainsburys for a couple of items and came back with about ten times as much!!

We stopped for fuel at 'The Boatyard` a small marina just west of Hilperton Marina as we had noticed their price of 82p per litre went we went by previously.   Good price and declare our own split.  Whilst locking the petrol cap Geoff managed to drop the widget that opens and closes it in the water!!!!  However with the aid of our strong magnet he managed to find it.

That is two articles which rarely see the light of day proving useful in the space of a week, the first being the boarding ladder to retrieve Geoff from the canal!

Soon after leaving the marina is this sign

Now we do always slow down for moored craft, BUT if we were to go past every moored boat on this canal at our preferred slow speed, we would be here until Christmas!   In places there are extremely long stretches of moored boats.  Some like the two shown above today are in good nick but there are also a lot of extremely tatty looking ones.  One thing we have noticed this year is that a larger proportion are showing in date licences.   Still room for improvement.

The stretch of the canal from Devizes to Bath is part of the National Cycle network which means there are quite large numbers passing by each day.  Sadly they are not all considerate riders.  Some of them seem to think the towpath is there for them alone and ride at breakneck speed with no thank you when you stand aside to let them pass.........Grrrrrh!   The minority also appear to have bells to warn you of their arrival from behind but I gather it is not law to have a bell.........why not????

Enough grousing for now, we found our mooring spot below Seend bottom lock was free and it is ideal.    The day was still fine and after lunch I roused myself to paint the port side of the gunnels which had a large number of scratches down it.  (Geoff siestered but he is still recovering from the shock of falling in!)

7.6 miles, 3 locks, 4hrs 40 min