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The charity making life better by water

Meet Rachel

Lady with lock gate

"Caen Hill lock flight is a big challenge! We're not in a rush, but from the start of the day we just want to get up and get going when there are so many locks to get through in one go. I like to keep focused and work the locks in my own way, but sometimes we bump into people who haven't had much experience of boating and they can slow us down if they take more time to get through the whole flight.

Long flights like this have to be hard work, but luckily it's not too bad today because lots of other boats are coming up and they leave all the locks in our favour. And we're travelling downhill, which is quicker than going uphill since you have to be more careful going up. If you open the paddles too quickly when you're going up in a lock, the force of the water can flood your boat.

We called our boat 'Just Joe' because that's our son's name. The boat's 10 years old now, so we've just had it repainted and it's looking good at the moment. We're on a two-week holiday. We set off from Long Eaton last Saturday, and travelled southwards then all the way down the Oxford Canal, the River Thames and onto the Kennet & Avon at Reading. It's been really nice!"

Rachel, Nick & Joe, Caen Hill Lock Flight, Devizes, Kennet & Avon Canal

photo of a location on the canals
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