Autumn Soddit Cruise–day #2

Sunday 9th October

We awoke to a cold but sunny morning and set off back towards the main line as soon as breakfast was finished. The first hour and a half had no locks to do so they crew relaxed before the hard work of the day started.

At Cowroast we shared with a very short narrowboat who was just passing down to the next pound. Therefore we did Dudswell and Northchurch solo. We were following a pair of narrowboats who inturn were following a very slow widebeam boat. Luckily, the latter decided to pull over and moor up after Dudswell bottom lock so things got better after that. We decided to stop for lunch after Bushes lock but the bank was shallow and we grounded as we moored. The crew started fishing while I prepared lunch but as time went by the boat was leaning over more and more. Obviously the water level in the pound was going down so we moved further along the pound to find deeper water.

After lunch we finished the Northchurch locks and caught up the short narrowboat, that had passed us as we lunched, at Raven’s Lane lock. We shared Rising Sun with him as well then he stopped for water by the garage. Down the last three locks to Jannock’s home mooring at Bourne End where we tied up and I went to fetch the car from Slapton whilst the guys tidied up and did more fishing.

A good weekend with no visits to casualty.

Graham