Rain, rain go away.

4 locks, 7 miles 4 swing bridges. Now moored at Lock 18
447 locks, 581½ miles, 17 Tunnels, 24 swing bridges and 9 lift bridges since Nov 2006

Again we started the morning with heavily overcast skies and a stiff breeze to help us on our way. We stopped at Hilperton marina to buy a few things from their chandlery and had only planned on travelling as far as Semington.
Unfortunately with the presence of more hire boats there were no moorings available. We opted to carry on to Seend and go through lock 17 where there is a stoppage on Thursday due to something jamming a lower gate. On arrival we were met by the same scenario, only one mooring so we grabbed that and breasted up to see if other moorings became available later in the afternoon.
Eventually a live aboard, who had probably overstayed his welcome reversed back down through the lock and moored below the lock leaving a space for us.
Even so we are moored over some of the facilities which are not publicized in any of the publications we have.
The weather forecast for the rest of the week is not good which doesn’t bode well for our trip between Hungerford and Reading with all the river Kennet weirs. We are lead to believe that the yellow boards have gone up on the Thames as well so we really need a week of fine weather for things to settle down again.