Towards Crick, by slow degrees

18th & 19th May

Yesterday started out very sunny early, so before anything else, we applied a coat of Black Silk paint to the top bend, the bit of the hull above the full length rubbing strake. (I'm sure that there's a canal specific term for this bit of the boat, but can't think of it offhand.)

Doing this involved me kneeling on the towpath and wielding first a sponge wedge brush on the fiddly bits, then a small, radiator type roller on the rest. Meanwhile, Sheila leant on the side of the boat and pointed out the bits I'd missed.

Actually, that's accurate, but unfair in its impression. It's necessary for the boat to be held off the bank, as you can't leave the fenders in place, so Sheila stands there, pushing at the cabin side for about 30 minutes whilst I edge my way along. From her position, she is better able than I to spot where the new black has failed to cover the old.

Once this job was done, we went up into the village where I bought a load of mince to make chilli on Friday night for all the Braidbar team, and some other stuff to feed us for the rest of this week.

After getting back and putting everything away, we boated round through the Turn, winded in the marina entrance and came back to the water and sanitary point just by the road bridge. There we did a long pump out, having managed to position the boat so that others could still get in to get water.

Whilst doing this, we had a classic conversation with some pleasant folk on a passing Black Prince boat:

BP: Where are we?
Us: Braunston.
BP: Which way are we going?
Us (resisting the temptation to say "Forwards"): Towards London.
BP: Oh, not Ashby Junction then?
Us: No, that was the other way, assuming you mean Hawkesbury Junction and then the Ashby canal.
BP: Oh dear, what shall we do? We don't want to do a lot of locks; we were told that if we went to Ashby Junction there would only be three locks.
Us: You can turn at the marina just round the corner, then turn right when you get back to this junction.
BP: Thanks

They disappeared for quite some time (around 20 minutes), then reappeared looking quite cheerful. The steerer told Sheila "I'm enjoying this... I think!"

I've commented before on the fact that hire companies no longer supply guide books with the boat, so it's really quite remarkable that more hirers don't get lost. I mean I know there's not that many choice points, but the books are invaluable in taking decisions about where to stop for the night and when to turn back.

After we'd pumped out, it was lunch time, so we pulled forward onto the mooring we used the other day, ate lunch and then blacked the other side of the boat. This wasn't quite so straightforward, as it came on to rain, but we managed in the end.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with pottering about inside, and trying to find out why I can't access the NABO website. Consultation with the canals list demonstrated, by this morning, that it seems to be because I'm using a T-mobile connection.

I've passed the result of the research on to Richard Carpenter, the secretary of that organisation, so that they can see if this situation can be fixed. It's really odd – I'm used to not being able to get any web pages at all in some places, and some spam filters on email block messages from dynamically allocated IP addresses such as you get with dial up and mobile connections, but not being able to access just one site is unusual.

Today, we got up quite early, though I was feeling stiff after the day before, and I did a boot cleaning session before popping up into the village for the paper, a further supply of bread, and some supplies so as to be able to do a cooked breakfast to keep us going whilst working at the show.

Then Sheila winded at the Turn, doing her usual excellent job, despite an unco-operative wind and boats all over the place. We joined a queue at the foot of the flight, and shared up it with fellow continuous cruisers on Twin Sister. There was still a lot of traffic about, so it was slow going, and lunch time before we were in the tunnel. I ate my sandwiches as Sheila steered us through, then took the helm for the stretch to Norton Junction whilst she did the same.

We've found a mooring on the Leicester Arm, just through the junction, the first time we've ever found a space here. I fear Crick may not be as popular or well attended this year, what with the credit crunch and one thing and another.

We've spent the afternoon trying to polish the starboard side, dodging in and out between the showers. The new drill earned its keep straight away – life is indeed much easier with a polishing bonnet.

As I write this, the floor mats are being washed. We'll need to do a good clean through the whole boat, of course, and polish the port side, but we are getting there.

The last couple of years, there's been no real T-mobile signal on the moorings. If that's the case again, I won't be posting here for the next few days. I'll set an automated post to go up on Thursday if we can't get a signal, so folks will know what's going on.