A very disturbed night

There was just one other boat moored with us when we retired to bed last night......which was a lot more than we had seen all day!   The mooring place was quite a lonely spot.
However at 0345am I was awoken to a loud banging on the side of Petroc which was not a little disturbing.   Being the brave soul that I am I immediately woke Geoff, who had one of his grumps!

Together we opened one of the windows to see what was going on, to be confronted a a woman who reeked of alcohol (or some other substance) informing us that her boat was sinking and could we come and help her drain it out......well it didn't really ring true so we told her to call CRT.  She asked who they were!  She then said her phone was at the bottom of the canal but we thought the whole thing was a con so we told her to go away.  The boat in question was not the one moored behind us but she was in front and must have come in in the dark.   When she returned to her boat, which didn't seem to be sinking, we heard raised voices and after a while saw a man departing.   This reinforced our suspicion that it was a ruse to get us off our boat.  needless to say not a lot of sleep was had after that.

About 6.30am she started her engine and, quite skilfully I thought, she turned he boat just in front of us and disappeared.

When we eventually set off a couple of hours later the boat was moored just before the first lock with no one on board.

Geoff wielding the 'Calder & Hebble Spike' which some of these locks require.

Coming up to the next lock where the original landing stage is in a sorry state.

Some of the bridges around here are not exactly scenic.....Note the name of this one.
Geoff wondered who was ageing the best!!

By the time we reached Mirfield it was getting rather hot.  We stopped by Lidl's and I walked into town to buy the paper.  My disturbed night and the hot sun caught up with me and so we decided to say where we were.......so feet up and watch Wimbledon......

Moored behind us was a chap with whom we got into conversation....as one does....

he knew the lady from last night and apparently she is well known around here, the boat is not hers but she rents it from someone...and she is an alcoholic.  BUT he also said that she genuinely did have a leak in her boat...so am I now supposed to feel guilty for not going to her aid in the middle of the night??  The mind does boggle however that she is running around on that boat full of alcohol (her , not the boat)

She went past us during the afternoon with a man on board again......just hope we do not meet up with her as I don't fancy sharing locks!

Total distance:2.03 miles 

Elapsed time:2h3m1s

 Locks:4  (2 were flood locks and open)

Bridges:8 
Average speed:0.99 mph (2.94 lock/mph)