Boating Grandparents

Monday 18 June

It was a phenomenally wet night, enough to make sleeping a bit difficult, and then to cap it all, we had a duck on the roof at five in the morning. After breakfast, I trotted into the village for basic supplies. The new “deli” is actually a quite smart sandwich shop, but didn’t seem to offer a lot of actual deli stuff bar some pate and rolls and the like.

We boated round to the water point at Stowe Hill, getting away from there just after nine. The whole day was a bit on edge – we knew that if Cathy hadn’t started her labour overnight she was to be induced today, so despite trying not to think about it too much, there was the inevitable mental calculation. ‘If they induced at ten, say, about five to eight hours for a normal labour, we could expect a phone call about...’ Completely silly, of course, as there could be any number of things to throw such a timetable out, but it’s hard not to think about it.

We found the boating quite challenging for once, on what is normally a pleasant but undemanding stretch. There were a lot of working boats heading the other way, having been at a rally at Stoke Bruerne last weekend and due to be at another at Braunston next weekend. It seemed as if every bridge hole had a huge bow coming through it, especially if the approach was a bit blind. Sheila spent a fair bit of time on the bow acting as lookout.

In due course we went through Gayton Junction, where the Northampton Arm heads down to the Nene. All being well, we should be back here in about a week’s time to start the Fens bit of this year’s cruising, though the amount of rain we’ve had means that the river is presently closed. Hopefully the weather will relent over the next few days, and allow navigation to recommence.

With the amount of traffic about, there never was any chance of getting through Blisworth Tunnel without passing someone coming the other way, but in the event it wasn’t too bad. There was one boat about half way through, and another at about the three quarter mark, both of them modern leisure boats, not massive great ex-working boats. As we got to the end, a GRP cruiser lined up to come through, saw us coming and backed out again, which was a relief to me, as I didn’t fancy trying to avoid crushing him against the tunnel wall.

When we emerged, there were, in fact, several boats lining up. The towpath was still very crowded with boats, some breasted up. I headed for a gap, Sheila jumped off the bow, but then saw a notice saying that the moorings were suspended until the end of the week. Accordingly, I pulled Sanity out again, thinking we’d have to work down the first two locks to the moorings on the long pound below. As I came level with the notice, I read the rest of it, and realised that it referred to the event which had just finished. Since whoever had been occupying the empty slot had clearly gone, there was no reason not to take the space. By now, Sanity was well clear of it, so a bit of reversing was called for. We ended up moored quite snugly by 12.30.

First attempts at an internet connection were quite slow, at the GPRS level, but in a little while the modem changed its mind and speeded up, first to 3G and then to the new super 3G, which is comparable to broadband speeds. It didn’t keep it up all the time, but there was enough fast connection for me to do some more software updating and to do the blog.

At 8.45 we got the call we’d been waiting for. Graeme rang to say that Daniel had arrived and that all was well. We didn’t have any champagne on board, but opened a bottle of Fitou, which we drank after Sheila had called her brother to pass on the news.

Tuesday 19 June

Despite the Fitou, we woke early and in good spirits. In fact, by eight o’clock we had breakfasted and moved onto the lock mooring to see if a partner would turn up. The lock was against us, so a bit of patience seemed called for. After a bit, someone off the Kate Boat Samuel James, tied just ahead of where we’d been overnight, came by. He said that they weren’t coming down the lock, but were planning to wind in the turning space normally used by the trip boat Indian Chief.

By now we’d been waiting about 15 minutes, so we decided to turn the lock and go in it to be out of their way. We thought that it would be quite tricky to wind Samuel James there, as she’s 65 feet long, and the Indian Chief was tied just about where they needed to be.

In fact it proved impossible to get her round, so they decided to come down to the first few locks with us to the winding hole further down. I got the bike out, and we set off, working well together. It turned out that the Samuel James crew were experienced hirers, and, as so often, were at least as capable as many privateers. After the first few locks, the Samuel James people had a further change of heart, and said that since they were most of the way down, they would come all the way and go on to Cosgrove to wind and lunch in the pub there. This was good news to us, since it meant we had a partner all the way down. At the bottom, Samuel James stopped to water, and we had a very pleasant run to Cosgrove, arriving just before ten past eleven.

There was another fast internet connection here, so after lunch we spent some time emailing friends and relatives with the good news. The afternoon was made complete with some brass polishing. Sheila did the lion’s share still, but my elbow is sufficiently recovered to let me try to do some at last. I did the tunnel light, and went on to do some of the mushrooms over the ventilators.

Inevitably, this brought on the rain in the late afternoon and evening. We didn’t feel too gloomy though, being cheered up by firstly a phone call from Graeme to say that Cathy and Daniel were home already, and then a couple of texts came in from him with photos of Daniel.