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Captains Log Canal Date 15th July 2009 2 Days travel Travels 23.5 Miles loads of Large Heavy River Locks Current Location Wyre Piddle Locks OS Ref SP 066 – 471 Lat – Long 52.7’22.3N 1 54’16.8W Tuesday; We had a lie in as we knew that Jim & Joan were joining us at about lunch time. We had leisurely breakfast and pottered about doing little jobs. They arrived earlier than expected and we were not quite ready. After filling up with water and carrying all there worldly goods on board we set off. The weather was mixed with some very heavy showers. Steady progress down the Avon was made and the pram back was up and down with the showers. The pram back is good but it is nicer to travel with it down. As usual, Jim took over the helm and I was relegated to “navigation officer” The river is getting wider and the locks are getting deeper now. Travelling down the river is a very pleasant experience, however, moorings are few & far apart and it is quite difficult to take the dog for walkies. After I don’t know how many locks we ended up at a nice little mooring in the village of Wyre Piddle. As I said moorings are not frequent on the river so we had little choice at this one. Shame really as this one was attached to the Anchor Pub! So that meant another pub meal. Life is hard! Wednesday; Jim & Joan Stayed the night on board. Jim was not too impressed by being woken up at 4 o’clock by our dog, other than that we had a peaceful night. We were expecting Mike to join us at 10.00 so that meant an unearthly start to the day at 8.00 (I had almost forgot that there are in fact two 8 o’clock's in the same day) Just as expected, Mike was late. I phoned him at 1 minute past to hurry him along just as he was pulling up to the pub. Still one minute is still late! We carried on down stream through Pershore and on to Comberton where we turned round and had lunch then returned back to the Pub in Wyre Piddle. Again, Jim took the tiller whenever he could, leaving Mike to fight for it from time to time. The only time I was allowed to steer was when things looked a bit iffy. Between the three of us we lost 1 Fender, took off a load of green paint at the front and back. Nothing serious. The amazing part of this is that both Jim & Mike claim that I did all of the damage! Most strange, but as they are both bigger and older than me I did not argue. After dropping off my temporary crew we turned round yet again and found a nice quite mooring at the locks. Guess who will be out with a paint brush tomorrow? It was lovely having friends on board, we had a good laugh, and the weather was quite kind to us.