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Monday 16 July

Since I had a repeat prescription to collect from the Post Office, there was no rush at all on this rather moist morning. Even so, I was there, third in the queue for the PO bit of the shop, at nine o’clock. The script had turned up OK (always a relief) so I got a newspaper as well and headed back to the boat.

First task was to wind her at the Turn – at Braunston this involves going past on the North Oxford arm, reversing down onto the bit from the Puddle Banks and then going forwards again around the third side of the triangular island back the way you came. Needless to say there was a fair amount of traffic already, so it involved a bit of timing and hovering, but at least there was no wind to speak of, which can make this manoeuvre all too amusing for any gongoozlers who are about.

We went on to a mooring near the marina entrance and went in to dump some recycling (though not the cans, there isn’t a can bank here) and to pick up a piece of kit from Tradline the fender makers. This was a hook for hanging a fender from the cabin rail, for those odd situations where the fixed points on the gunwale to take a clip aren’t in the right place. We’ve had one on order from them since the winter before last, but it looks like a solid piece of kit, so hopefully worth the wait (and expense, at £15.75) It’s likely to be particularly useful on the rivers, where the landing stages are designed for big GRP river cruisers, not narrowboats.

Then on we went to the foot of the locks, where there was quite a queue. After about half an hour we started up, sharing with St Thomas. We were at the top by 12.30, so stopped for lunch before tackling the tunnel. At 1.15 we setoff again, thinking to take advantage of the fact that most boats would still be lunching. No such luck, we met three coming the other way at various points, including one full of students just by the dogleg.

By 2.30 we were at the top of Buckby, and found a free visitor mooring near the water point. The edge of the towpath is quite high here, giving us an excuse to try out the new toy, which worked very well indeed.

After sorting ourselves out, we had a cup of tea, and I did the blog while Sheila got on with her crochet. We couldn’t do much outside the boat as the weather changed yet again to quite heavy showers.

Tuesday 17 July

Another day of steady boating, retracing our steps of last week. The weather wasn’t totally dispiriting, a mixture of sunshine and showers. Setting off at 8.30 we shared down the locks with a very pleasant couple on their new Stoke on Trent boat. Although we were following another couple of boats down, most of the locks were almost with us when we got to them; there is still a lot of spare water running down this flight, and cascading over the top gates to refill the empty locks. We were followed down by a motor and butty, so it was brisk work. I had the bike out, which meant that the boats had to wait for a very little time above each lock.

At the bottom we squeezed onto the service mooring for Whilton Chandlery behind a boat which was doing a pump out. As I went into the shop to ask for some diesel it came on to pour down. To do her credit, the woman just sighed slightly, got her coat out and came and served us. By the time she’d walked to the boat, the rain had almost stopped, so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been.

We also picked up a new gas cylinder, so with diesel tank full, toilet tank empty and a spare gas cylinder on board, we only need to fill with water and we’re ready to face the rigours of the Nene. For the record we paid 52p per litre for diesel, and £17.99 for 13 kg of propane.

By 12.15 we were at Weedon once more, so a quick trip to the shop for newspaper and bread and we could have lunch. There followed a lazy afternoon (OK, even lazier than usual). By evening I was snuffling well for some reason, so an early night seemed to be indicated.