Thursday 22nd September
Off at 8.45 amid showers and through Braunston locks (double width, what a change!) alongside a group of Dutch people enjoying our canals.
Part way up we're interrupted by a cranky old boy with full grey beard and yellow oilskins who seems to be shouting at his boat as it careers across the pound ahead of us and turns to 90 degrees. I go up and try to help whereupon it seems he is shouting at his unfortunate, disabled, wife who is within, while his boat is partly grounded in the low water of the pound and swinging around from the stern as he tries to gain control. Opening the lock for him raises the level, eases his grounding and at last enables him to get in to the lock and away.
We too get in and away, charging on to Norton Junction and to the bottom lock of the Watford Flight by lunchtime. As usual there is a queue, though not as long as last time (only 2 hours!), and we begin to think we could regain our home mooring at Welford before night fall.
We are out of the top lock (there are 7, gaining 16 metres) at 3pm and with the estimate from the lock keeper that it's just 4 hours to Welford we consider being home tonight instead of tomorrow as we'd believed.
It's a beautiful day now, bright low sun through trees highlighting furrows in freshly ploughed fields, and we are going at a good pace (John calculates just under 3mph and believes we are going a bit too fast) so at this rate we can make it in time - if we want to.
In my own mind I set a target of arriving at the Welford junction by 7pm. Any later I thought would be too dark and it would be preferable to moor up just before the junction and rest up with the food and drink we had on board. With the temperature gauge warm but not quite overheating, and with sunset at 7.01 pm, we arrive at 7.07 and I make the decision to go for our marina.
Down the dark Arm we went, surprised to be crossed by another boat heading back to the main canal, cautious but confident in gathering gloom, and then assisted by our trusty hand-held spotlight, we approached the pound. The spotlight illuminates the narrow entrance and we are through without a bump. John leaps off, dashes to the lock, opens it and I glide in effortlessly in near total darkness. What little light remains in the sky helps make it lighter than down the tree-lined Arm.
In minutes we are through and at the marina, helped now by the electric lights from the Basin. We moor up at 7.45. It is late September. It is very dark. We are home.
I found it really quite exciting (narrow boating isn't usually exciting, is it?!) and certainly memorable, if not entirely sensible. Of course we had lights - spotlight, headlight and navigation lights -, plus experience and familiarity with this stretch, so it was less tricky than, say, a long tunnel. CRT don't recommend it (please don't try this at home, youngsters).
But what fun!
21 miles, 14 locks, 11 hours
Off at 8.45 amid showers and through Braunston locks (double width, what a change!) alongside a group of Dutch people enjoying our canals.
Part way up we're interrupted by a cranky old boy with full grey beard and yellow oilskins who seems to be shouting at his boat as it careers across the pound ahead of us and turns to 90 degrees. I go up and try to help whereupon it seems he is shouting at his unfortunate, disabled, wife who is within, while his boat is partly grounded in the low water of the pound and swinging around from the stern as he tries to gain control. Opening the lock for him raises the level, eases his grounding and at last enables him to get in to the lock and away.
We too get in and away, charging on to Norton Junction and to the bottom lock of the Watford Flight by lunchtime. As usual there is a queue, though not as long as last time (only 2 hours!), and we begin to think we could regain our home mooring at Welford before night fall.
We are out of the top lock (there are 7, gaining 16 metres) at 3pm and with the estimate from the lock keeper that it's just 4 hours to Welford we consider being home tonight instead of tomorrow as we'd believed.
It's a beautiful day now, bright low sun through trees highlighting furrows in freshly ploughed fields, and we are going at a good pace (John calculates just under 3mph and believes we are going a bit too fast) so at this rate we can make it in time - if we want to.
In my own mind I set a target of arriving at the Welford junction by 7pm. Any later I thought would be too dark and it would be preferable to moor up just before the junction and rest up with the food and drink we had on board. With the temperature gauge warm but not quite overheating, and with sunset at 7.01 pm, we arrive at 7.07 and I make the decision to go for our marina.
Down the dark Arm we went, surprised to be crossed by another boat heading back to the main canal, cautious but confident in gathering gloom, and then assisted by our trusty hand-held spotlight, we approached the pound. The spotlight illuminates the narrow entrance and we are through without a bump. John leaps off, dashes to the lock, opens it and I glide in effortlessly in near total darkness. What little light remains in the sky helps make it lighter than down the tree-lined Arm.
In minutes we are through and at the marina, helped now by the electric lights from the Basin. We moor up at 7.45. It is late September. It is very dark. We are home.
I found it really quite exciting (narrow boating isn't usually exciting, is it?!) and certainly memorable, if not entirely sensible. Of course we had lights - spotlight, headlight and navigation lights -, plus experience and familiarity with this stretch, so it was less tricky than, say, a long tunnel. CRT don't recommend it (please don't try this at home, youngsters).
But what fun!
21 miles, 14 locks, 11 hours
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