and so to Crick

Here at Crick we've got only a limited access compared to the luxury of the high speed T-mobile connection we've had recently. In particular, the T-mobile signal is feeble and slow. I'm posting this one via the Orange one day at a time account, so I'll keep it rather briefer than usual. It'll be difficult to keep a full account going whilst we're working quite hard at the show in any event - I'll post when I can, and the full service will be resumed next week.

Monday 21 May

After the excitement of the 4.15 duck, we woke early. I walked up to the village for a paper, and came back to find Sheila sorting the filing and generally tidying the office area.

After lunch, I checked out the batteries, which seemed to be fine - the odd cell needed topping up, but there was no sign of failure in any of them. The odd behaviour of the inverter charger can't be put down to that it seems.

It was a quiet day in general - a case of dealing with email, doing the blog, and otherwise relaxing before the trip to Crick and the exertions of next weekend. We heard from John and Nev that their problems with Waimaru continue, such that they won't be taking her to Crick as a show boat after all - there is still no resolution of her electrical problems, and she still needs some paintwork sorting out. Not a good advertisement for Ben Harp, I fear.

Tuesday 22 May

We woke early again to a fine day. We decided to go to the top of Braunston flight today, up Watford flight tomorrow, and then to the show site at Crick on Thursday.

We boated along to below the bottom lock and settled to wait to see if a partner would turn up. The Braunston flight, being on the Grand Union main line, are broad locks capable of taking two narrowboats at once. As such, it's much more comfortable going up with a partner, as there is much less problem with the boat being bounced about in the chamber.

After a bit of a wait, Sheila discovered that there was a hire boat waiting above the first lock, so we agreed to work up number one on our own, then share up the remaining five with Jasmin. This worked well - Jasmin was being crewed by some very pleasant Canadians from Vancouver, ex-deep sea fishermen in fact.

We got to the top in nice time for lunch, and a little after were joined by old friends Ivor and Beryl Caplan, on their new boat, Brandywine. Beryl has a nursing background, and after one look at my elbow, produced some Tubigrip and fitted me up with it, so that it at least felt much more comfortable.

If Braunston is a bit tricky for mobile phones, the top of the flight is impossible. We now have Vodafone, Orange and T-mobile phones on board, and none of them had a signal. By standing on the bridge at the tail of the top lock, I could get enough Orange signal to text people to say we were out of range.

We spent part of the afternoon helping another couple of hirers to work down the flight - they were elderly, but in a 65 foot boat. They'd planned to wind after the tunnel, but the winding hole there is only 50 feet or so, and they were a bit down in the mouth at the thought of working another six locks.

After our good deed for the day, we had a quiet afternoon in the sun. We also took the opportunity to look over Brandywine, a very nice boat from MGM Boatbuilders.

Wednesday 23 May

Yet another early start - this is getting to be a habit, but the sunny mornings are so very encouraging. I had a good walk back to the village for the paper, setting off at 7.45 and getting back by 8.15, by which time some boats were already moving up the flight. We set off straight away, and were through Braunston tunnel by 8.45, for once not meeting anyone coming the other way.

It was a glorious day for boating, especially along the Leicester Section of the GU that leads from the main line at Norton Junction to (guess what) Leicester and the Soar Navigation.We got to the bottom of the Watford flight (it's not far from Watford Gap Services on the M1) at 10.10, to find a queue of two boats below the first lock, one between the first and second lock, and one, Brandywine, between the second lock and the four lock staircase that forms the interesting bit of the flight. Brandywine had set off an hour before us, but that's boating for you.

For those not familiar with the idea of staircase locks, there's a bit about them here (thanks Jim).

We took the opportunity to fill up with water while waiting, and were up the flight by 12.30. The only problem was that the Sanity's bow fender got caught as she was rising in the first lock. To avoid disaster in such a situation, it has a rope strop in the fixing, so this duly parted and allowed the bow to bob up again. It means that the fender dropped down, but that just gives me a job to do next week, making a new strop. (In fairness to Sheila, who'd been working the top paddle and didn't notice the fender catching, she commented that strop was the appropriate term for it in view of my reaction when it first happened.)

We tied at the top for lunch, and did a running repair to the bow fender. On the way up the flight, the lockie had said that the reserved moorings at Crick were already cleared, so we decided to carry on and not stop for the night as we'd planned. This meant another tunnel, Crick, which proved to be very wet - I was steering, and at one point had steam rising in clouds from the water hitting the hot roof in front of me.

At Crick we found our mooring with no bother, then went and found Graham and Carolann on Autumn Years for a couple of beers and a lot of talk. We invited them for dinner, and a great night was had by all.