Wednesday September 5 2012 Welton

Surprisingly last night we didn’t hear the train at all, we did however hear the low hum of the motorway. We pushed off at our normal 10 o’clock this morning thinking the canal was not that busy.
Our first stop of the day was at Stow Hill to fill with diesel at 89p/lt for none propulsion and like all good outlets they let the costumer decide what percentage they intend to use for propulsion.
As we passed through Bugbrooke opposite the marina there is a No Mooring sign indicating that you should not moor opposite the entrance, some people obviously have a problem with this idea.
I often wonder when I see notices like “Slow Down” and “Which part of Slow Down don’t you understand” why people have to be so insulting and rude. I would much rather see a sign like this one and be more likely not to speed up.

We arrived at the bottom of the Buckby flight to find we were 7th in the queue, by the time we went up the first lock we had been joined by two more boats, needless to say number 8 was a single hander. We met several boats in the flight and it was 5-30 before we left the top lock so the flight was reasonably busy. One thing that did stick out was that CaRT had left one of their tugs half way up the flight on the lock moorings. This was on a pound that was piled from lock to lock so with the aid of a piece of chain they could have secured it anywhere rather than leaving it right in the way. In the top pound of the flight on the offside one of the houses has a rather charming planter at the front of the house.

Once clear of the flight we head off up the Leicester Line passing several boaters that we know on the way. We were planning to moor just outside Welton Field marina but that section was full so we had to go a short way further the next section of piling.