We did ok last night, a bit noise but the wind was right on the bows and we sleep at the stern. We recorded 27 mph, gusting 35 mph so not to bad. We didn't have a great deal of rain and at times a good clear sky with a bright full moon.
Today we were off just before 10 am in bright sunshine, passing the entrance of Dunchurch Pool Marina the breeze coming out of the marina entrance had us going sideways towards the offside bank. The final half mile to Braunston Junction was slow going as we caught up with a hire boat with a suspected gearbox problem, they pulled in opposite The Mill House, we in turn stopped at the service point just through bridge 91 to fill with water. If you plan to use this tap note it has a half inch thread, not the standard three quarter inch. Between here and the locks we met 2 boats so our luck was in again with all the locks in our favour, not only that the gent at UCC having work done on his boat recognised our boat and helped me throughout the first lock while we chatted about the Middle Level. Part way up the flight in now the home of this ice breaking tug.Our second bit of luck was lock 4 the top paddle wouldn't drop. Had this happened to the boat coming down the flight would have been closed in front of us and not behind us. Of course being Braunston I couldn't contact CRT and finally got a phone signal just before the tunnel where rang CRT to report it. I was able to warn the 2 boaters coming down of the problem.
In the tunnel we met a hire boat, it's tunnel light on the front cabin left bulkhead at head height, the beam horizontal and slightly to the left. When we were bow to bow I couldn't see a thing and we made contact, I have no idea who hit who because I have no Idea if I was still against the wall. Thankfully that was the only coming together we had not meeting another boat until we had cleared the tunnel. We carried on in the warm sunshine, almost disbelieving the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow but decided to moor in the lea of the bank and hedge just before Norton Junction, hopefully this well shield us from the worst of the wind. Our final bit of good luck, we had just tied up and gone inside before the sun disappeared and the first rain shower arrived.
I did get a call back from CRT to say they were on their way up the flight just 30 minutes after I reported it, whether it's fixed or not I don't know.
You may recall in the first post of this trip I published a proposed route to Market Harborough and back. I carefully checked all the stoppages and all was clear. Today I received notification from CRT that the Watford Flight stoppage was being extended, I thought they had already finished, so that’s the end of that plan and here is the new one.https://canalplan.uk/journey/16752_cp
Friday 18
Well following the weather forecast we decided to stay put today. We are moored with a good earth bank to our south side and as the main blast was coming from the south the worst of the wind went right over us, many times we felt we should be cruising, but just looking at the trees reminded us why we were staying put. I laid a couple of flor tiles, that doesn't sound much but they are under the pull out bed, not the easiest place to access and not much room for cutting. I also had a bit of a clean under the engine using puppy pads to suck up the water, of course I also sat and watched the ladies curling.
To see a map of the first half of our journey click HERE. For the second half click HERE and a Google map will open
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