Day of drama.

Slipping our moorings around 10-00hrs with perfect cruising weather, we were not to know how dramatic a day it would become. All went well, we had to wait at Swarkstone lock until two boats went up and two came down. Then it was our turn, we went into the lock with a hire boat and were soon out at the top.
At the next lock(Stenson lock) one of the boats that had gone in front of us had run aground. This wasn't a big problem. Myself and two men from the hire boat who were dressed as pirates managed to re-float it.
It was now time for us and the hire boat to go through the lock. It is a deep lock (12ft 4ins)so we decided to go in side by side, this would stop the first boat in, drifting across and blocking the second boat. So Marlene set of with the hire boat coming up along side.
Then it happened the right hand lock gate had not opened fully and both boats got wedged solid. They would not go forward and they would not go back. To add to the drama there was a queue building up at the top of the lock.We tried taking one boat forward and the other one back but that didn't work either. Finally after about 30mins another boat was attached to the hire boat, with both engines in reverse and Marlene going forwards the hire boat slipped back from the gate allowing Marlene to enter the lock. The hire boat then came in along side and we were back in buisness.It was lunch time by the time we cleared the lock, so we moored up.
The rest of the day was uneventful.Reaching Willington we moored for the night. It's a nice place, however on one side of the canal is a road and on the other side a railway. Oh well sleep tight.