Working Boat.

A sunny day but the winds were cold.  Fortunately not strong,  a strong wind can play havoc with steering a narrowboat. Their draught isn't great and the "air draught" (the amount above water) is large.The blip shows an ex-working boat.  They wouldn't be as troubled by wind, looking back to my blip of 27/4/19 you will see a modern working boat, loaded almost until the top rubbing strake was at water level.  Working boats frequently were loaded until the rubbing strake was at water level.  Look at the shot and imagine the top raised line on the boat at water level and you will see they had quite a draught.  Solace on the other hand will have a draught of around 2 feet (60cm).

Another interesting sight was a colony of Sand Martins using holes in a 3 foot (1m) wall as a nesting site rather than their usual sandy river bank.