Last night we ate at The Water Front at the end of the basin, its the building to the left of the photograph below.
This morning we went for a walk from the basin round to the canal and back. As I passed the flats a gent made a comment about our boat name and asked if we came from Norfolk. It transpired that they came from Lowestoft and now owned one of the second floor flats in what use to be the if recent times the boat yard, prior to that it was an old warehouse. We were invited in for a look round and it was super, I took the two photos above from there top story balcony.
We pushed off from our moorings at 1030 this morning meeting several boats as we made our way to Foxton Locks. There were no other boats waiting to go up, but due to the trip boat
operating from the bottom of the locks by The Bridge 61 you can’t wait at the bottom of the flight so I slid to the other side to wait. Diana went to see the lock keeper and we had to wait for a boat coming down, then we could go as fare as the middle pound and wait for 4 more to come down. We were in the actual flight for one and three quarters of a hour, probably the slowest I have ever done it. When we reached the middle the last 2 boats hadn’t even entered the flight. A CaRT volunteer was driving a hire boat down for some reason, even the lock keeper didn’t know why, but he expected the volunteer look keeper to do all the work for him while he just stood and drove. Once clear of the flight we soon caught up with a day boat from Kilworth Wharf. We passed several live aboard boats but the occupants all seemed to be out. One of them was offering drawings for commissions and looking
what was on the side of the boat they were not bad. Just ahead, I think they are together the chap does wood carving with a chain saw and disk sander, he had some nice planters in the front
of his boat. We were still ticking along behind the day boat, the weather was nice and we didn’t mind, we are not in a hurry, however I did draw the line and overtook him at the mouth of Bosworth Tunnel, he was all lined up to go when he saw a boat enter the far end, so pulled over to the side and waited, at this point I went passed him. We met the other boat about half way through the tunnel and we were within 200 yard of the far end before the day boat entered. We moored for the night against the concrete edging, complete with rings at Welford Junction at 5 pm. Diana decided that she was going to wash the side of the boat which actually meant I had to do my bit as well. While we were working away and elderly couple came by and stopped to talk, like all good coincidences it turned out that he lives in Suffolk as well. They had never seen a canal before but their friend had brought them away for a week and they had been to Market Harborough, Foxton incline plane museum and were really enjoying it.
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