Grand Union Canal:Berkhamsted

At about 9:15 this morning I got an email from Canal and River Trust to say that the navigation was now open and that the repair to the lock gate had been completed.  It just remained for the canal to be filled up again and the padlock and chain removed from gate 40.  I decided to move to the lock mooring in anticipation of being able to go.  Letting water down took a little while. Meanwhile I was joined by nb Totoro and when the padlock came off we started off together and continued in fact nearly all the way to Berkhamsted.  Starting the descent from Cowroast I was not on best form for some reason and we all got a bit “tangled up” at one stage, with no real plan, however it soon all settled down.  There was a huge volume of water following us down the hill with lock gates weiring  making opening bottom gates just that more difficult.  There seems no obvious reason for this as we took was just just one lock full form the top.  Down at Berkhamsted at the shopping moorings, water was periodically flooding the towpath.   Having done my shopping I thought it only polite to leave the shopping moorings and move on.  However, firstly it started raining and secondly I had to descend the next lock and have three goes to find a satisfactory mooring.  I seem to recall having a thought that it is prudent to accept the first mooring you come to instead of hoping that there is a ”better one” further on.  There usually isn’t.