Away we go again

28th & 29th May

The weather continued dramatic for our last night at Crick, with a massive thunder storm in the small hours. Sheila, nonetheless, slept through it. Despite this, we made a decent start, getting away by 8.30, to wind in the marina entrance (not the easiest one to use) and then stopping on the water point to refill a seriously depleted tank.

By 9.15 we were into the tunnel. Our passage through it was a bit slower than in the other direction, not because Sheila was steering, but because a Canaltime was in front, steering erratically and banging from side to side. Presumably, it was their first experience of tunnel navigation, but the lack of any kind of rear facing light did give She a problem. We always leave the stern doors open and a light in the engine 'ole, so that following boats can see where we are.

They moored just on the other side, to allow ourselves and a GRP cruiser to pass, which was decent of them. We, in turn, let the cruiser by, as they were clearly able to maintain a better speed over the shallows of the Leicester Section. It all adds interest to the tranquil canal scene, as the guide books are wont to say.

Arriving at the top of Watford we found a few boats waiting to go down. Andy the lockie said that we'd have to wait until a small queue at the bottom had come up, so we settled to make a cup of coffee and generally mooch about. Sheila started a washload, now that we've got water again.

Andy has a mini shop in the lockkeeper's hut, selling basic provisions, secondhand books and videos and the like. It's on an honesty box, as he's usually up and down the flight somewhere.

We started down the flight just before 12, and were out by 12.35. We'd planned to go on to the visitor moorings before Norton Junction, but decided to stop on the towpath just beyond Welton Marine, as we couldn't be sure of finding a space further on, and we were getting hungry.

This proved to be a very good mooring, with little noise from the M1 or the West Coast Mainline. During the afternoon, I read Andrew Denny's latest post on Granny Buttons – thanks for the kind words Andrew, and for the link to Fernwood's site and the account of the design of Whitefield, the avant garde boat they were showing at Crick.

Noteworthy are the facts that the owners decided to build it after becoming enthused about canals from watching the telly series Waterworld, and after one weekend actually boating. On that basis, they spent a quarter of a million pounds building this dramatically different boat.

No harm in their returning excess money to circulation, of course, but we'd heard whilst waiting at Watford that they'd had trouble navigating Crick Tunnel (the boat is joystick controlled), and indeed when they passed our mooring later in the day, the top of the fancy cratch cover was ripped where it had grazed the tunnel arch.

Could be that's why boring old traditional designs have solid steel in that location?

I also discovered via the Waterways World feed that BW has started the consultation on the moorings tender trial. Sheila and I are still pondering the issues raised, so I won't say anymore here, but I'll undoubtedly be back to the topic.

Today we got away at eight, as I wanted to get through Braunston Tunnel before it got too busy. It was a very pleasant day, and we had an uneventful passage. We waited a while at the top of the Braunston flight for a boat to come up, and that meant that a Willow Wren hire boat caught us up to share down.

Things then went a bit pear shaped, through no one's fault whatsoever. The second lock down was against us, there being two boats ahead of us. We could see a single boat coming up the lock below, so waited for them. Meanwhile, Grumpy Git could be seen turning the top lock for himself.

As the ascending boat came out of the lock below, its engine died, and they had to stop on the towpath to investigate. We therefore turned the lock, and went down, with Grumpy Git meanwhile scratching his head, as it appeared to him that we'd hung about above the lock he now wanted before suddenly starting down it.

As we came out of this lock, the Willow Wren also got into difficulties and had to stop, so that there were now two broken down boats in the one short pound. We therefore waited in the lock below for Grumpy Git, and worked down two with him before he announced he was stopping just below the Admiral Nelson pub.

At this stage we gave up on being responsible lock sharing boaters and went down the last two locks on our own. We found a mooring just by Butcher's Bridge, having taken from 9.15 to 11.15 to get there from the top of the flight.

Here we found that there's almost no Vodafone signal, but a fast internet connection via T-mobile. I texted Elanor and Graeme to let them know not to bother trying to ring us.

After lunch, we went to Tradline Rope and Fenders and bought some of their nice "Victory Black" synthetic rope for making some new fenders – the ones we've got at the moment are really on their last legs. Austin Siviter had shown us this stuff – it looks really good, like tarred sisal, but of course will be rot resistant. It costs £70 for a roll of 220 metres, but we should get at least 10 normal sized fenders out of that, or a smaller number of my mega side fenders, half hitched around a rolled up rubber mat, so compared to what you'd pay for ready mades, it's well worth it.

Diesel here is 90 pence per litre. I dipped the tank, and we've got about a third of it left, so we're not desperate. I've left a voicemail for Mike Partridge, whose boat Jubilee is the local coal boat, to see if he's likely to cross with us soon. If not, we'll diesel either at Clifton Cruisers or Willow Wren as we go through Rugby.

Apart from that, the afternoon has been spent quietly, tidying the engine 'ole, dozing, and (for Sheila) getting on with the knitting she put to one side to finish the porthole doilies for Kala.