Anxious to avoid Winkwell swing bridge in the rush hour - it's a busy minor road - we left early at 6:15 still with one lock to do before the bridge. All went well. We were getting on well until Berkhamsted when three boats appeared ready to take off in front of us. We leapfrogged two and joined Braidbar "Ice Breaker" in the next lock. Chatting with the sippers of the following boats it was agreed that we would then pair up with nb "Jasmine" as the single hander wanted to get on, needing to be in Stone in 9 days time. Just as well as we lost the other after the next lock, making good time to Marsworth. Two volunteer lock keepers greeted us and to my surprise followed us down leaving us with little to do until we reached the third lock. We were waiting there for an opposite direction boat in vain. Nobody could get the bottom gate closed properly. Seemingly there was an obstruction at the bottom seal. The volunteers called for help so we had to wait, but it did cross my mind that perhaps without the lock keepers with some skulduggery we could have cleared the problem. However, talking to them all reasonable tricks had been tried. After about an hour and a half, a man in blue appeared with a handy set of extensible metal tubes which with a bent fork arrangement (There must be a proper canal term for the bent fork thing) cleared it and we were on our way. nb Jasmine left us at Marsworth services to attend to disposal of some personal material while we carried on. The swingbridge after Pitsone Wharf jammed for Pat, so I had to moor and offer help. We got it moving again by jumping up and down on it whilst attempting to push at the same time. It was just skuffing on two bricks. Amazingly, "our mooring" at Grove Lock was free, so putting the boat to be was achieved quickly, the wind turbine erected and the TV aerial set up to receive transmissions from Sandy.
Supper was quickly sorted by Pat. She does a lot of the preparation beforehand.
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