Sunday morning we locked down the Wilmcote Flight in readiness to pounce on Stratford-upon-Avon on Monday. We came across a hire boat moored in the middle of the flight in a most peculiar way. His stern was partly out of the water. Gave us a bit of a giggle thinking he must have had a hard night. One of the pounds was drained empty too. A likely culprit?
I spent the weekend counting boats going up & down trying to calculate our chances of mooring in the basin for 48hrs. All the Saturday crowd would have to move on by Monday & there wasn't much movement on Sunday. We were in with a chance. It's all about timing. I think a 10.30 arrival should do it. Fortunately for us it worked, & we moored right in front of the statue of Hamlet. It was like United Nations with all the flags flying from boats. Swedish, Canadian, Danish. We then had to whip ours out to be displayed for all those tourists taking pictures of the boats.
Plans changed, we need to get to Droitwich by Monday. We left the basin at 7am, checked the flood level marker - amber - ok to go with caution. We needed some divine intervention to warp speed it down the Avon, out onto the Severn & back onto the canals. My order arrived in Vicar Dave & wife "Saint" Margaret on NB Duchess. They were there at the first river lock & paired us through the whole 15 locks on the Avon. I must say it was the first time I've actually felt like I was on holiday, sharing such a beautiful river with an equally beautiful couple. Not without its hurdles mind you. We were delayed a day at the 2nd lock by flood , & had to sit tight for a couple of hours 2 locks later waiting for the water level to drop again. Strong currents were playing havoc with NB Duchess pushing her about, but teamwork got us through, arriving at Tewkesbury on Friday. A record of 1.5 days cruising!
Temperatures this week started to climb, finally got into shorts on Saturday that have been awaiting their UK debut. We cruised up the Severn to Worcester into the arms of Rob & Caroline. Nice evening of dining & catch up.

Sights/Activities
Shakespeares New Place, Croft Hall

Total Lock Count
411