Down the Hatton Flight we go

As we pulled away at our normal early hour....8am this morning...the plan was to sit in the top lock and wait a while to see if any of the other 3 boats came to join us.   Geoff had passed the owners of the hotel boat as he walked along and they said they were not leaving until 10...too long to wait.

I had visions of a sausage and bacon bap from the cafe at the top lock so was happy to wait until they opened at 9.  However I checked with the lady who was opening up at about 8.30 and was told they had no baps today...only thick bread....which did not appeal.

So with no sign of any boats we decided to go it alone.   It was a beautiful crisp morning, only slightly chilly.   After about 4/5 locks we had the good fortune to meet a lockie volunteer.  He helped us down for the next dozen or so which certainly speeded things up.

After he bade us farewell we decided it was coffee break time (we had offered him but he declined) so we sat in one lock for a slight pause.

Most of the locks are like this going down......no lack of water around here.

I had visions of a nice sit in the sun after the 21 locks but Geoff had other ideas......he wanted to get as far as Radford Semele so we had two more locks at the Cape of Good Hope.  We were luckier here as we met another boat who had moored overnight so were able to share the last two.

A short pause for a quick shop in Tesco's as we went round the back end of Leamington Spa.   Leamington does not show a good face to the canal and we have never been inclined to moor there overnight.   Radford Semele is sufficiently far away and the mooring is pleasant and it even has a shop in the village......a pub and a church too if we want but we didn't this time.

A longer day than I had anticipated but the weather was good so no real complaints.......

Total distance:7.07 miles 

Elapsed time:5h56m10s 

Locks:23

Bridges:33 
Average speed:1.19 mph (5.07 lock/mph)