Friday 6 July 2012

After the lovely evening we had last night with the great sunset and a BBQ the weather forecast was spot on and in the early hours it started to rain, a brief spell of drizzle about 10 30 and then heavy rain again until about 2 30 this afternoon.

We set off at 1030 and made our way to the lock, there was already a Narrowboat there and they invited us to come alongside, it had a very nice Andy Russell paint job. I got talking to them and it turned out that on there way over from Salters Lode they had spent a night on the sand bank because they turned for the lock to soon.
A little after 11 and the lock keeper said there was a boat coming across from Salters so we would soon be on our way. The other boat very kindly said I should go first as I was on the outside which I thought was very good of him, so in the lock we went. Eventually the lock keeper gave me the all clear and I moved slowly out of the lock, hard right around the sandbank but no sign of the boat coming down. I went as slow as possible until the flow caught my bow and we were off, just then he emerged from the Salters lock and looked to be traveling very slowly upstream. I made my way down just on tickover and then put the power on to enter the lock, I still didn’t get it quite right and had to push upstream to get the bows in. Once back on the Middle Level we moored up and walked back to watch the other boat arrive and wish them well on their trip back to the Nene.
By now it was just passed midday so we decided to get changed and have lunch, then wait for the weather to improve which it did around 3 ish. When it did we made another start. The weed was much better than I had expected and we only picked up small amounts on the prop which soon spun off. The wind picked up and the sky  continued to blue up. The temperature went from 13 up to the low 20s and the sun came out.
We moored for the night outside The Crown Hotel which unfortunately is right by a main road, but I have been over and booked a table for tonight and as they have 3 beers for me to try we should be OK.