10 more locks to Long Itchington

Last evening we had Chris & Sharon from Krystyl over for drinks before supper and we decided to continue in company up the 10 locks to Long Itchington.   However the planned 8am departure  was put on hold due yet again to the rain.........none of us fancied setting off and getting wet immediately.   By 9.15 the rain miraculously stopped so we set off....only to have the rain start again soon afterwards...so much for the forecast saying it would clear through!!!!   By then we were wet anyway so we just plodded on.   We stopped above  the third lock to use the sani station.   This is one of the less salubrious of BW (sorry CRT) offerings...the elsan emptying place leaves a lot to be desired.
The rain continued for most of the way but once one is wet...what the heck......

Climbing now

Not far to go.....Sharon doing this lock and Geoff and Barney going ahead to set the Bascote staircase of 2.

We moored just before bridge 26 and after struggling to hammer the stakes in (well Geoff did) we discovered that a little further up there were mooring rings, so stakes out we opted for the great security of the rings.   We anticipated quite a few boats going past and since a large number appear to have no idea of what SLOW DOWN PASSING MOORED BOATS means, we felt it was a wise move.

Later going for an evening stroll with Barney I spied this interesting bow fender!!!!

Before supper we repaired to Krystal for drinks,   

Total distance:4.66 miles 

Elapsed time:3h28m14s 

Locks:10

Bridges:10 
Average speed:1.34 mph (4.22 lock/mph)