North of Market Bosworth tunnel Tuesday 21 January 2014

Last night was a bit colder and we woke to a very thin layer of ice and some thick fog. For some reason we were away slightly earlier at twenty to ten, turning left at Norton Junction up the Leicester Line towards Watford Locks.

Here the ice was just thick enough for us to leave a trail and the sun was peaking through above. One of the liver aboard boaters enquired if I was on a mission, boating in such conditions, The ice was at least 2mm thick, other than that it was quite pleasant with no wind

On the offside there are 3 old dumb barges, they have been here as long as I can remember, at one time they were breasted up making it difficult to pass, now they are almost overgrown.

At the locks there were 2 boats coming down, the first single handing so we had the bottom lock full with the gates open before she arrived and worked her down before setting off our selves to wait in the first pound for the second boat to come down. The lock keeper said we were the third boat today, he only had 2 yesterday. I was rather taken by this sheep who was playing “King of the Castle”

The moles have been having a field day on the embankment between two of the pounds, lets hope they don’t tunnel between them and cause a leak.

CaRT have finally managed to stop the gates in the staircase leaking so hopefully full length boats coming down will no longer get their back cabins wet.

The Crick tunnel was wet, wetter than I remembered so the brolly was brought into use. All the moorings opposite Crick marina are designated “Winter moorings, permit holders only” There was one boat there on the whole length.

It was now 1230 and the weather had started to clear , it actually felt cooler. It was some time before the sun managed to break through.

We continued along the Leicester Line to the junction with the Welford Arm, where I turned right. At this point a head appeared from below and told me I had gone wrong and should have carried on to the left towards Foxton. A bit of reveres and we were swinging round in the junction to head to Foxton. I was joined by a Kingfisher, who would fly a few yards ahead and then wait until I was level with him before moving on again.

It wasn’t long before we were at Market Bosworth Tunnel, much dryer than the last two. CaRT need to do quite a bit of tree work on the section leading to the tunnel with lots of small trees laying in the water or hanging very low.

Once clear of the tunnel it was time to find a mooring, we are on a slight bend just past the pipe bridge between bridges 46 and 47, but with the amount of traffic moving I don’t think we will be in anyone’s way. We moored up at twenty to five and it was still reasonably light, I don’t think it would have been a problem to have carried on until five this evening.