Only 15 miles. For a full 10 hours of sailing.
Double locking
To get out of Hanwell, we doubled up, me and a boat from Penkridge I’d met the previous day queuing up for Teddington Lock.
Probably cut the locking down from 3 hours to 1 hour and 40 minutes. What we basically did was tie the tow boats together. I went and set the locks for the coming boats and another crew member opened the locks to let the boats out. Third crew member was steering the boats.
We all did our jobs impeccably. It led to a lot less effort in me having to climb out of the boat and up the side of the lock ladder each time to help with the locks.
I had to stop for water at the top. I met the same boat later on in Uxbridge where they stopped for the night. I carried on.
It was really slow going on the GU. I’d put that down to the amount of moored boats I had to come past which is at a snails pace, 2mph or less usually.
I managed 15 miles in a day of around 9 hours.
Continue reading “Hanwell to Batchworth – Bonnie in Wonderland”