Hockley Heath

 

Here I am Rune

Distance 6 miles 

Total 5133 Locks  410 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7810.8 miles

 

A dry days cruise today along a very pleasant piece of canal. Bit of a late start as I had to get to Sainsburys for some shopping before we set off, so only got going by midday. The depth of this canal is a bit hit and miss and I managed to run aground about 6 feet from the bank near to Hockley Heath swing bridge trying to move out of the way of a boat leaving the bridge mooring. I did make something of a misjudgment in winding beyond bridge 27 as I thought that the wind was blowing straight down the canal behind me so I thought I’d just push the bow into the winding hole and let the wind do the rest. Sadly the wind was swirling somewhat in the area and I realised that when I tried to turn into the winding hole, the wind was blowing straight out of it so managed to be blown sideways snagging both bow and stern so I had to get the pole out to push the bow across.

There was a hire boat following me who clearly wanted to wind as well although he has had a few issues further back so I gave him a hand as well.

Tomorrow we empty the Elsan and then start heading back the way we came as we aren’t going down Lapworth flight at the moment.