Finishing Off The Devizes Flight - Bottom of Caen to Sells Green

1.66 miles,1h48m, Locks:7, Bridges:3, 4.79 lock/mph

We had a very quiet night - no boats arrived to wait for the flight to open at 8 am! We were grateful for the tyres we picked up a while ago - for fenders. The sides at the bottom of Caen are very high with a bit of an overhang and our round fenders were not effective against the boat banging last time we were here. The tyres worked - tied so they were floating horizontally.

When we woke it was sunny, but very blustery. The boats moored ahead of us moved off - one very early. We left about 10. 40 am to go down the 7 locks to Sells Green. This a pretty stretch and we enjoyed pottering down!

Exiting lock 28 under Marsh Lane Bridge

We had a little help from the wide boat Talisman that was following us down. The owners live near Padstow, Cornwall and like to get away from the summer crowds down there on their boat based on the K & A! They plan to eventually sell the boat and retire down there! I said we had done the opposite!

There were also a few boats coming up so some of the locks were set for us. This is by lock 25 where we met 2 boats coming up.


We had a couple of light showers but most of the time the sun shone. We had a bit of an altercation with some lads fishing on one lock landing who insisted that the "no mooring" sign there meant we could not put a rope ashore to wait for the lock! They insisted their angling licence entitled them to fish there. We pointed out the "no fishing" sign and they continued to complain that we had taken their lines away! They refused to see sense so in the end we gave up explaining and anyway the lock was ready!

We got to the bottom lock at Foxhangers and waved to Ann from "nb Skylarking" as we went by.

Ann works at Foxhangers and her husband John helped fit out Epiphany at Bath Narrowboats. Once past all the moorings there we motored quickly to Sells Green.

It was very blustery by then and we pulled in in front of "Posh Rats and Activ". Robert greeted us and said he had seen us yesterday on his way back from work, figuring we were on our way down! They run a coffee boat, moving around a bit, but are here for the moment. We know them from Devizes and Pewsey Boat clubs.

There was some space further up nearer the swing bridge so we moved on and managed to moor - a bit out from the side so need the gang plank. How ever that is not such a bad thing as the towpath here is very dusty and the cyclist throw up a fair amount as they pass at speed!

Settling for lunch we managed to watch most of the F1 qualifying and now have the women's tennis final on! I really wanted a TV signal as Dr Who is so good at the moment! After that maybe a drink in the Three Magpies is called for!