Leaving Bristol

With a crew once more we leave Bristol today to start the journey back
to London. Our first leg will be quite short, hopefully, maybe just
to Hanham where the Kennet & Avon canal starts.   Crew duly arrived in the afternoon, after I had moved the boat to St Augustines Reach to facilitate Grannie boarding as the wall at Bathurst Basin would be too difficult.  At 16:20 we set off, and apart from a single stone thrown at us just east of Netham Lock, we had an uneventful journey through the upper gorge.   We found the moorings at Hanham, by the Chequers pub, full.  So on to Keynsham Lock where the same applied.   By now we were getting a little worried because of the need to get a suitable place to get the dogs off.   I knew that there is a mooring poptoon by the old LMS railway bridge, but when we got there that was also full apart from about 6 feet on the upstream end.   So I decided to use that with the anchor deployed at the front.   This meant getting a stern rope on, then inching the boat forward enough to lay the anchor, before pulling back to get some purchase.  This all seemed to work well.   No rain was forecast and the stream was very weak.    This is a good spot actually.   There is a well maintained picnic site there as well as access to the cycleway and restored railway.