Thank goodness that's over.

We left the arm at 10 this morning knowing that we would probably be on our own. As we pulled the pins the hireboat with 8 Royal Navy personnel on it decided to get pumped out so it was a bit of a squeeze to get back onto the canal. We got to the first lock and no boat coming down and the lock set against us so it would appear that I was going to have a long day ahead of me. Lock was about half empty when the Royal Navy appeared, result or what. With there being 8 of them on the boat it was a doddle. 4 got off the boat to do the paddles and gates so I was able to walk on and set the next lock. After 3 locks we caught up with a boat going up on its own nb Prince Albert so I helped them for a bit until we met 2 boats coming down. It was nice to chat to the young navy people 4 lads and 4 girls ranging in ages from 18 to 30. The trip for them was a team building week, their length of service was between 6months and 13 years they were all writers dealing with pay and admin. We certainly had some laughs on the way up the flight, especially as the higher we went the more windy it became and the crew of Andrew were struggling a bit. Give them their due they managed getting into the locks very well although I shut my eyes everytime the youngest member, a very slightly built young lady leapt from the boat to the steps in the lock and then pulled the boat over to make room for Paul. I had visions of her missing her footing and ending up in the water. When we got to the BW yard I thought we were at the end so when I saw there was 4 more locks to do I wasn't best pleased. We had caught up again with nb Prince Albert so all in all it took us 3 hours to do the flight. The navy were heading for Stratford so we parted company and left them motoring on, we pulled over at the first opportunity and are now moored up just after bridge 55. It is blowing a gale but my intrepid angler is dangling his rod. Will continue our journey tomorrow all being well. I am absolutely shattered, goodness only knows what state I would have been in if we hadn't shared the locks, hopefully I've lost half a stone I can do with it.