Date - 8 8 09 Day - Saturday Start - Hawkesbury Junction 0950 hrs End -Bottom of Atherstone Flight 1700 hrs
Last night because my son and his family came to see us we ate at The Greyhound, We went in about 6 30 and asked for a table for 6 but they were fully booked, then the initiative of the waiter clicked in, "This table is booked for 8, can you be clear by then?" We told him if the service was good enough we would be well gone. How easy it is to just say, sorry all tables are booked. The food was much better than I remember having there before and my son said it's the best canal pub we have ever taken him to too eat. That is praise. This morning we set off just before 10 am. and met very few boats, but I did manage to meet two in the course of the day right in bridge holes and in both cases they had to pass me on the wrong side. We stopped for coffee with Peter and Hazel on their end of garden moorings in Nuneaton before pushing on to the Atherstone flight, we caught these quite well, the top one was down a foot and then we met boats at every lock until we reached Barry Hawkins's At Baddesley Wharf yard then things got patchy, a couple against us, and a couple with boats just entering from below. The locks on this flight empty a lot faster than they fill, but I suppose in their working days the side ponds would have speeded the filling. Maybe the top paddles are intentionally small to encourage the working boaters to use the side ponds, especially if they were fitted with a large paddle. We moored for the night at 5 pm just below the bottom of the flight on the mooring rings just after the lock moorings. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
