Saturday 8th April 2006
Radford Semele - Lapworth Wharf (13¾ miles, 30 locks)
Jen and I got up early and worked Radford bottom lock on our own while the children had a lie-in. Today was Robert's sixteenth birthday, so I guess he deserved some token gesture...
It was chilly with early morning mist, but the sun was shining.
We stopped at the Tesco moorings and had breakfast in the cafe before doing some fairly major shopping, having brought very little with us from home. We sang happy birthday to Robert while eating our breakfast - very quietly so as not to embarrass the other customers - or ourselves.
We shared Hatton Locks with Deva, who were heading for Stratford, and we made good progress until three locks from the top, when Hawksmoor refused to leave the lock without a trip down the weed hatch. This is the first time we had put it to its eponymous use. All previous occasions had been to remove plastic bags. The photograph doesn't really do it justice - I stacked up almost as much on the other side of the stern deck. At least it happened in the lock so we weren't at the mercy of the strong winds.
At Kingswood Junction, we turned onto the North Stratford Canal and up the first six locks of the Lapworth flight to moor at the site of the old wharf.
We had been lucky with the weather, sunshine and cloud, but it stayed quite chilly all day. We ate on the boat - a delicious lamb casserole.