Monday 11 October 2010 Watford

Last night Guy and Connie picked us up at Bottom Lock and took us to The Boathouse to eat. The food was fine and after a main and sweet we were all topped up. We followed this by coffee back on Harnser.
This morning we were awake a bit earlier than planned, the boat behind left at about 7-30 but only after sitting with his engine running for about half an hour.
Once about Diana walked Magic while I visited the Chandlery to buy some 5 mm brass screws. On the way back I came upon Dragon Lady with Terry and Sally on board waiting for the locks so we pushed off and joined them for a slowish run up the flight at 10-30. While waiting for the second lock we had the pleasure of watching some aerial acrobatics as a couple of crows gave a buzzard a hard time. We met a few boats in the flight but turned most of the locks.
We met one boat in the tunnel which was very dry, I only noticed one patch of roof rain in the S bends. Just by the first bridge out of the tunnel there is a boat moored about half a boats length from the bridge hole, there must be three quarters of a mile of moorings here and they chose the bridge hole as a mooring.
At Norton Junction we turned left up the Leicester arm and stopped just before Welton Station Bridge and bought some home made jam from a stand on the offside. Not long after this we caught up with another boat and followed them to Watford Locks.
After checking with the locky we followed the boat ahead through the first lock. They were supposed to go up the second and the boat ahead up the staircase, unfortunately the Canal Time boat coming down failed to stop at the top of the staircase, as they didn't see anyone coming up, so the front boat had to back out of the staircase and we had two boats in the short pound waiting to go up. At this point the lady locky asked me if I would take a plank of wood up the flight for her,I think it was probably and old bottom board from an old working boat discovered in the side pond when they dredged them last year.
Once clear of the the flight we deposited the board at the lock keepers office and then continued to moor for the night between bridges 7 and 8 at 3-30 pm.