Hireboaters get a helping hand

I lit the fire this morning to keep us toasty while we engaged in Zoom church; before the service started, though, we boated another couple of miles. We got under way again at about midday, eating lunch in shifts. The canal goes through a lot of trees round here, making it often rather gloomy. Today, however, the sun shone through.

Once I had spotted one tar drip diverter I was bound to see more. This is example number two on this trip.

I could hear the appeals of "Howzat?" as we approached Lapworth Cricket Club right by Lock 4.

Here we caught up with a novice crew on a hire boat; fortunately, a couple of slow locks later, a volunteer lockie appeared and helped them down the rest of the flight. I think it's between Lock 7 and Lock 8 that there's a tricky bend, made more interesting when boats going in different directions need to pass. Here the lockie directed the hire boat to the right of the lock.

In the end we made good time down the flight. We went straight on into Lock 21 so we could dispose of rubbish, then made the 90 degree left turn into the Lapworth Link where we tied up. We had invited my former colleague Ian Winter for tea and the F1 race highlights. The tea worked but the TV signal was not stable enough to watch, so we abandoned that side of things (I caught up later on the laptop). It was good to see you, Ian.