It is only Easter but we are raising up already.

 It looks like we have an air lock in the heating system. Luckily we don't need it for heating or hot water so I am leaving it alone for now. We got up having remembered to put the hour ahead on the clock but got off really at the old time anyway. In our defence there was 23 wide beam locks to do so when I saw the boat ahead of us, Cherwell III checking his engine etc. I asked if they were heading up and as they were there was no point heading off until they were ready. Which turned out to be about 1030!

The lock house at the foot of the Hatton Locks over seeing the fun and games. You can see the original narrow beam lock closest to the cottage. The wide beam locks were added in the 1930's with the idea to be able to bring 100 ton barges from London to Birmingham. They nearly did it, but some of the bridges weren't adapted and they didn't widen the locks all the way to the centre of Birmingham. The route open, such as it was, was opened in 1934.

Helen is still smiling as we are only one or two locks in our trip up the 146'6" climb to the top. No sun today but not too bad for locking. The white and black cast iron stack behind her is the paddle mechanism. These were designed for the widening of the canal and take about 24 turns of the windlass to open them up. They are often called 'hydraulic' but they aren't. Instead of a ratchet there is a worm gear enclosed in the tube. The idea was that this slowed down the closing of the paddle gear so that they could be just left to lower themselves. The rod sticking out of the top indicates that the sluice is open, letting water out. There are notices to state that you should wind down the mechanism with your windlass but this isn't because they are safe to drop on their own, but to ensure that they are closed all the way down and so not leaking water. Therefore it would be okay to let them drop so long as you ensure they are fully down with your windlass afterwards.

The first 7 or so of the locks are awkwardly spaced so making it uneconomical in setting ahead when you are on your own. But then the get to be a nice distance in a very photogenic climb up the hill. We developed a good rhythm with me going first mooring and starting the lock draining whilst the girls caught up. I would then head in the lock and go to the front sill and steam ahead to keep the stern in to ensure room for the second boat to get in. Once we got to about lock 37 a voluntary lock keeper appeared which meant we could set a lock ahead most of the time. This allowed us to steam into the lock together sometimes. We did start to meet a few boats coming down, but it was really quiet on the whole. Except on the tow path where there were plenty of people parading up and down. Only one group volunteered to help push a gate through.

The old maintenance yard by lock 42 looks well kept, but I think it is a training centre now. Colin and Yvonne on 'Cherwell III' were heading north and we worked well together 59' and a 45' boat 

There was a Napton Hire Boat with 6 crew chasing us up the locks and they kindly helped close up after us as it would speed us along so helping them too. The cafe below the second lock from the top was doing good trade and smell of sausage sandwiches (or at least that is what I told myself the smell was) was very enticing. We got to the top in 3 hours 20 mins. I'm sure it isn't a record, but very creditable as we had to turn the vast majority of the locks

Frankly we felt like stopping at the moorings at the top but they are in a cutting and very dark, and muddy too at this time of the year. 'Cherwell III' went first after the lock as I had to wait to pick Helen up who was chatting. There were a few boats heading to the top of the lock ready fro dropping down tomorrow. Of course we often met them at awkward spots.

Shrewley tunnel is 443 yards long and is wide enough for narrow boats to pass. However I got glimpses of a light at the other end of the tunnel. They lingered so I kept going anyway. The tunnel was opened in 1799 by the Warwick and Birmingham Canal Co. They were going to build it to a 7' narrow dimension but as the Grand Junction Canal Co started construction at around the same time they decided to make it full width.

The tunnel is pretty wet, especially this year, and I made the rookie error of leaving our book out, so it got drenched. There is a second tunnel at the west portal. This is because the tunnel was constructed with no tow path so it days of horse drawn boats they would have been led over the top, through the tunnel and meet the boat on the other side. I would assume that rather than legging they would have polled themselves to the end using the initial moment of the passage too. One day we must go and have a look at Shrewley village which is directly above the tunnel.

These boats have been there a good while. I would need to look more deeply into what they were, but they are going, going, gone. I seem to remember one time we passed the inner one a jet of water started up from her as an automatic bilge pump cut in.

As we came round this corner it made me think that it had been snowing as the whole landscape looked bathed in white. It is the blackthorn in bloom. Does this mean that there will be a good crop of sloes this autumn?

We were heading for the Rowington Embankment that has great views and the solar panels would not be shaded either (if there was any sun that is), however we got cold feet thinking that as there wasn't much moving we better find a spot rather than have to start some more lock this late in the day. So we moored up between bridge 60 and 61.