Drowned rats on the Caen flight.

22 locks, 2 miles, Now moored at Devizes Wharf.
479 locks, 586 miles, 17 Tunnels, 26 swing bridges and 9 lift bridges since Nov 2006

The outlook for the day didn’t look promising at breakfast time but at 7.45am it stopped raining so when the lock keeper unlocked the paddles at 8am it was all go. Derek on Kalimera was first into the lock and just as I was casting off it became obvious that a hire boat in front of us with South African family aboard was going to try and get into the lock ahead of me. I managed to quickly cast off and get ahead of him and unbeknown to me Dot had spoken to them and told them that we were travelling together and were first in the queue the night before and he would be next. It transpired that they were first time hirers and were probably looking for a free run up the flight with an experienced crew. By the time we reached the top of the flight they had still not moved.

However as we started to fill the first lock the skies opened up again and it rained all the way to Devizes.
We had a good run up the flight and only met 2 boats coming down when we got to the third lock from the top. We finished the actual flight in 2 hours 10 minutes which was 10 minutes faster than we did going down thanks to our 2 extra crew, Brian and Mavis and all of the locks were set in our favour.
Passing Nb Epiphany moored at the Black Horse pub (we may catch up and walk down and see them again tomorrow) we eventually moored up at Devizes wharf just before lunch when we all had a hot shower, change into dry clothing and a hot cup of soup.
After lunch the weather improved and Brian and Mavis went off sight seeing and we went off to replenish the larder. Afterwards the four of us all went through the very interesting Canal Museum at Devizes.
I don’t think any of us will be staying up too late tonight after a very busy day.