I was beginning to bore myself with the blog so I thought I’d have a couple of days off, and give our readers a rest from my drivel, but it’s time to catch up now or I’ll forget it all!
On Monday we had a short journey, with nothing to report, and moored up about an hour from Braunston. There was a lot of harvesting of fields going on by our mooring, so it wasn’t the quietest in the world but interesting to watch how these huge Combines make short work of the field.
Yesterday morning we set off for Braunston. It didn’t seem as busy as usual as we approached, and there were a few mooring spaces which we have never seen before. We stopped and watered up and emptied loo cassettes and then continued on towards the locks. We wanted to go to the chandlers by the bottom lock, but as we approached it was obvious that it was rammed with boats waiting for the lock, so we managed to pull in to a mooring space before we got there and walk the rest of the way. Purchase made, we waited for the lock, and were lucky enough to share with a great foursome on a hire boat – obviously experienced, and a great deal of fun. The chap at the helm was an ex fireman, so there was a lot of joshing going on, and some friendly insults along the way. We seemed to be up the 6 locks in no time at all. We carried on to Norton Junction and found a mooring just after we turned onto the Leicester section on the GU. We tied up and wandered down to the New Inn for some lunch, but we missed it by a couple of minutes – they stop serving at 2.30 by the bar clock, which is 5 minutes fast – so be warned! When we got back from the pub we set to making use of our purchases from the chandlers. We have struggled to find something to put on the rear deck to make it non-slip, but rubber matting was always too thick as we have an upswept stern and the back doors only just clear the deck when opening. When we met up with Triskaideka a couple of weeks ago (they have the same stern as us) we noticed that John had lifted his back doors with washers and put some rubber matting down – doh, why didn’t we think of that??!! We had bought the matting and the washers at the chandlers. It was a tricky job, but didn’t take too long – the matting had to be cut to shape, and we had to use nine washers on one of the doors to lift it high enough to clear the matting. But we are very pleased with the result, and Cassie likes it too as she doesn’t slip when jumping on or off the boat.
Monday 3.2 miles and 0 locks
Tuesday 7.1 miles and 6 locks
I know the upsweep makes matting awkward, but it is a lovely line! Just a thought though..surely the paint lines are out of sinc now? Hopefully there is plenty of 'post' still for the door to be attached too!
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