Luck at Hatton

Wonderful layover day on Tuesday, in a sunny secluded spot.

We had company on Monday evening, but not a soul on Tuesday night.   The sun shone and it was pleasantly warm.   It was just a couple of miles to the top of the Hatton Flight

We set off about 7.30 but there was no danger of queue at the flight as there are so few boats around.  We were hoping to meet at least one boat with whom we could share the locks.   We stopped at the top to water etc and it looked as though we would be unlucky.  Lo and behold just as we finished watering a diddy CRT aluminium boat appeared, together with it's two man crew.

As we were in the first lock two volunteers also appeared and then wonder of wonders as we were in the 3rd lock two more volunteers appeared.  It was our lucky day.

Half way down we met a single boat on the way up and two of the volunteers carried on with him but we were still on a roll!   We had a slight pause whilst I made them all a cup of coffee and then we made a cracking pace until the last 3 locks when we picked up a pair ahead of us.  There must have been moored part way down.....One was a hire boat and they didn't seem to be in the swing of preparing the lock ahead so progress slowed a little.

We decided to moor before the last lock just opposite the station and gave heartfelt thanks to our cheery volunteers and CRT staff.   How lucky can you get?  The 20 locks had taken us just under 2 1/2 hours

Total distance:4.96 miles 

Elapsed time:3h59m12s

 Locks:20

Bridges:12 
Average speed:1.24 mph (6.26 lock/mph)