Up at the crack of dawn again and we left the moorings at 7:00. The first 6 locks down after Devizes are well spaced out and Pat walked on ahead filling the locks or just opening the gates as necessary leaving me to work the locks single handed. K&A locks are not as well laid out as on the Grand Union and in order to close the gates on exit it is necessary to moor up below. This delayed me quite a bit and so I got quite a lot behind. A swan was occupying the third lock, which caused quite a problem evicting it. At the bottom we met nb Vagabond again and paired up for the rest of the descent. The 16 locks of the main Caen Hill flight, with their large side ponds, are very impressive whether viewed from the top or bottom. 
A natural sequence becomes established fairly quickly on a regular flight of locks like this and we were doing very well until we met opposite direction traffic when the cross over in the short pounds between locks needs careful handling. One at the bottom we met more opposite direction boats, but their exuberant crew had set the locks too far ahead which caused us more delay and at the next set of locks a hire boat coming up had got stuck under a gate causing further delays. All in all by the time we reached the bottom, 29 locks in all, we had taken 5 hours. Proceeding onwards, still in company with nb Vagabond we did the swing bridges and the first three locks at Seend where the Vagabond crew peeled off into the Barge Inn.. Concerned about the possible difficulty of mooring up at Bradford on Avon, always a popular spot, we continued arriving at 16:45 to find the last decent mooring near the dry dock. Tomorrow our destination is Bath. We will find out then, if the repairs to Weston Lock are complete and whether we can get to Bristol in time for Saturday’s University reunion dinner.
Today 36 locks, 6 swing bridges, 11.8 miles, 9hrs 45 mins
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