We left Devizes Marina on Saturday with much enthusiasm and some trepidation to begin the journey we had been planning for so many years. With a little (lot of) help from Chris we made our way out of the marina and into the canal and progressed the couple of miles to the Devizes wharf where after a bit of maneuvering we finally tied up. A few household tasks needed to be attended to – laundry, a few more purchases and get the myfi fixed so we could have internet access. No Bron didn’t throw it on the floor in anger – the microsim we were sold got stuck inside but a fantastic guy in Devizes fixed it and we were up and running.
We thought to move a small way today (Sunday) but started to go through the locks and realised we had to go all the way through today!!! For your information there are 29 in all, and they are manually operated. Given that Bron hasn’t yet driven the boat, Bob had the task of getting it safely through the locks while Bron did the paddle pushing and windlass winding to open and close the sluice/valves to control the water. It was an amazing workout!!
We started at about 10.30 am and finished at 3.30pm. What a day!!! Both of us are completely exhausted but very happy we have done the baptism of fire!!! And we had the most beautiful sunny day and lots of helpers from the people walking past.
Hopefully photos will load to our website to illustrate the effort!!
Wow, we are so proud of you both, what a massive task, do hope your aches & pains didn’t last for too long xx