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Semington to Devizes. 16 June

Had a bit of a problem finding Cribbit as Jason and Cristina had moved her last time and although he had emailed me her location, I was in Greece, so not really paying attention. I knew it wasn't quite where we had agreed and I knew the final place involved locks but I didn't know in which direction! After some towpath trudging in both directions, found her well tied up above both locks.

The car access point is at Bridge 160 which is very close to the original junction with the Wilts and Bucks Canal, an active but long term restoration project.

The original entry point of the Wilts and Bucks Canal.

What makes its restoration 'just a little' difficult'.

Managed to avoid the rain showers, first by moving the car in the rain up to the Three Magpies at Sells Green, then by walking back to the boat in the dry, lunching on board while it rained and then boating in the dry back to the car.

The swing bridges have been a real challenge for the single hander, with very limited access on the non-towpath side, but the bridges from here on are well supplied, all except the last one before Sells Green. Of course, this was the only one with no other boaters to help!

Semington swing bridge, gives hope to the single hander.

Made use of all the facilities at Seend Cleeve, opposite the Barge Inn.

Moored next to Calon Lȃn went with Sam and Shell, her owners, up to the Three Magpies for beer and food.

Moored at the Three Magpies.

Calon Lȃn

The 7+16+6, Devizes Locks. 17 June

Left the Three Magpies at 1000 and headed for Devizes bottom lock, the first of the seven.

Pleased to see the photo voltaics powering the back pumps.

Then on to empty the lock to get going. First a quick call to Terry and then, well, our emails tell it all:

On 22 June 2016 at 10:36, wrote:
Subject: Re: rabbits

now sj better review your
luvverly fluffy bunny line
yes its raining in oakley..but made lemon marmalade yesterday, bottled this morning, tasted very nice on my toast this morning.
meanwhile the weeds grow like, well, weeds!!!!

good day with jim, jane and rob doing the devizes 7+16+6 on saturday, have a few [poor] pics...too busy for much photo taking and not much to see from the bottom of a lock.

oh but the shame!!! before we started, i was talking on the phone to terry and about to start winding a paddle with my lefthand when the ratchet slipped and threw my Dunton windlass into the lock...no hope of getting it back as it is alluminium...have ordered two new ones, a long and a standard. perhaps i should not have laughed at the bloke with the steel jubillee clips on his handle...i could have recovered it had i done the same!

love c

From: Thomas Leadbeater
To: Chris Leadbeater
Sent: Wed, 22 Jun 2016 10:07
Subject: Re: rabbits

"If not duffers won't drown"...

And that is why we have signs on the motorway here saying "phone calls can wait" and "no message is this important" And why we should have them over the urinals too!

And I thought you doddery old blokes were very careful one step at a time... welcome to the fast paced digital world of multi-tasking, short attention span, must do everything at once - you teenager!

Now what was I doing....
Watching in horror your referendum news... almost over..

stay safe,
t