Blogger meet number 2 chalk and cheese progress on the Atherstone flight

We sat out the rain and winds last night, it was a horrible night. Around 7pm the canal lit up like something from Close Encounters as a boat came past with an impressive LED set up on the front - he waved I waved, he must have been wet through !

This morning was a bright start but with a much brisker south westerly than I recall was forecast. We made decent progress to Atherstone top lock. There was not a single spare mooring above the lock which at our arrival time of 11am was a surprise for sure.

The tally board at the top lock was encouraging as was the fact a boat appeared from the lock as we approached. One up three down today and 14 total boats yesterday - the lockie told us they can have 50 boats on a busy day. 

We made excellent progress over the first 4 locks then a single hander jumped off the water point and it all went very slow from that point forward. I think we turned every lock apart from one. The single hander was a lovely fella who had a great smiley approach... well done him.

We met Tony and Helen from NB Holderness part way down the flight and had a nice chat  - please excuse the scruffy look Its my cruising attire not tidy attire at all. Nice to meet you safe travels. 

Here is their blog a very good read   Click Me 

At the last but one lock we met a boat mover who was bringing a boat up from The Severn to Brinklow marina. He impressed me by saying he'd set off on Monday. Even more impressive was the fact he'd gone up the Stourbridge flight but found the Dudley canal too shallow so had come back down the flight  ( 16 locks?) and come via Fradley. He was doing 12-14 hour days and had set off in the dark at 6am today. He was rewarding himself with a curry in Atherstone tonight and a few beers - a decent shift of boating for sure.

We motored on past the elsan and water tap at the bottom of the flight - bizarrely the smiley single handed boater was filling up with water again ? We were going to moor just past the services there but decided to motor on to Polsworth as we've not moored here before and there is a chippy and coop we will be visiting later.  

Always sad to see a boat like this.