Braunston Sunday 5 January 2014

After all the rain yesterday it turned into a dry evening and a very cold night. This morning we woke to sunshine and frost on the grass, hardly a drop of rain and not a ripple on the cut.

We set of at our normal 10 am and continued to The Canal Shop at Hillmorton. On the way I spotted a black rabbit on the towing path at Tarry’s Bridge by the converted stables.

We stopped at The Canal Shop to fill with diesel at 87p/lt and do a bit of shopping. My daughter had given us some of their gift vouchers for Christmas, so it seemed a good opportunity to get a few odds and ends. Once the shopping was complete I dropped back to the basin entrance to wind, but didn’t realise how shallow the canal was on the towing path side and put the back end aground a good 3 foot from the bank. Next time I will keep a lot closer to the off side and moored boats.

By now the water level in the canal had dropped about 4” from last nights high levels. However the sun had gone back to bed and the breeze was picking up, although it was about 5°C warm it felt a lot cooler and I felt it necessary to put a fleece on.

As we approached  Braunston it was getting greyer and windier, we negotiated the fallen tree, I do hop CaRT are going to do a bit more to it next week as its a real pain with the boats moored ether side making it a chicane. The cruiser is less than a boats length away and there is another that we are just passing. 

Just before Braunston turn there is a Narrowboat with this small portable generator set up on his back deck. I expect it saves a lot of engine running.

As we rounded Braunston Turn into Braunston we felt the first spot of rain, exactly as forecast and no sooner had we moored up outside The Boathouse Pub than it started raining properly, we watched it hitting the canal side windows as we tucked into our two for one Sunday Lunch.