Set off at the same time in the morning with Angelique, and we were making good progress through the locks until we caught up with a family on large hire boat who were having all sorts of issues controlling their boat into the lock, in the lock, and exiting the lock, which made progress really really slow. Chap said it was their first day and that they were complete novices. They came really close to losing control in one lock and both ourselves and Barry and Kath tried to give them some guidance, but I think it was all too much for them to take in, or they simply didn’t understand. There are times when the patience of a Saint is required.

This slowed our progress down considerably as normal locking through a lock would take say 5 mins – every lock was now taking around 25 mins. Multiply this by the number of locks in a day and time does get lost.

We eventually arrived at La Radorte and Angelique went into the alongside berthing just outside the town and we went to follow them in. Whenever going into the sides of the bank, I always go as slow as possible and nudge the bow in first. I was doing this and could feel her touch the bottom, but as Angelique (draft 1.1m) had made it in fine I thought it might just be a small hump if mud and gave a wee bit more throttle, only to become really stuck. No problem thought I. All I will simply reverse, but when I did so I could hear and feel something hitting the prop so I stopped not wanting to risk any possibility of damage, and asked Barry to come alongside and pull Sun Dog off the mud.

This they kindly did and instead of berthing here we carried on around the corner where there is a bit more depth.

In return for this we decided to treat them to a meal at the restaurant alongside the canal where we all had Pizza and chips – not very healthy but I have to say that we really enjoyed the meal and also their company.