Left at 09:11
arrived at 14:00.
Up to grey showery
weather, I tidied planters,Derek walked the dogs and we were off for
9 11. There are only three locks today, we are
heading for Branston. 2 NB were ahead of
us but its been quite up to now. The
first lock was Stenson lock, its notorious round this piece of water as having
difficulties. It is outside a pub with a
covered terrace outside overlooking the lock, so its usually full of all day
breakfasters) Two NB in so I went up to get the gen on it, the
front gates were only opening partially, I shouted Derek up to give me a hand
as I would have to open both gates. He
came up protesting that he only needed one gate and he could manage to push
them open!! I made him open the paddles on the gates and low and behold another
boat came up behind Esmerelda on the lock mooring so we did definitely need two
gates. He went back to the boat as he
thought the boat wouldn’t be able to tie off.
I did try to give him away to the NBs that were leaving but no
takers. A boat came to the top of the
lock to go down, so she gave me a hand-
they were going back to their mooring in Sawley Cut (they had been out for 6
weeks) but had to cut their trip short as they had to go back to sort problems
with their property out. We let
Tranquility and Esmerelda in (Tranquility had trouble getting in) they lifted
their fenders up and fit in ok. A BW
Lengthsman arrived, noted the problems with the gates and waited till we had
let the boats through, he didn’t help us with the heavy gates though. We did the lock perfectly, if I say so myself
and the lady told me about Stratfor-on-Avon, it sounds lovely and Im getting
quite excited by the prospect now. She
let me get on the boat and her and her husband wished us well as we did
them. Went through Willington , and I
remembered what it was like, we didn’t stop as most other boats stopping for
water, provisions and toilet emptying, yuk. I did a bit of sewing on yet
another bear as its quite a long while to the next lock, also made lunch, which
we managed to eat before Dallow Lane Lock.
As we passed Horninglow Wharf there was a group of Greylag geese, some
getting adult feathers, so quite patchy looking. Remembered we had fish and chips here with
Charlotte and Amelia and watched the Moorhens feeding their babies
batter??? Dallow is a small narrow lock,
only about 4ft.deep. We got in the
queue, probably the first of many. The
young couple in front of us had just picked their boat up from Mercia Marina so
the lady of the boat was apprehensive about what to do. I went up and helped a large NB go through
and then the newby came up to do the lock for their boat, we chatted about the
order of things and they were through ok. The lady from the boat behind us came
up and did other side with me, we went through and left her to theirs, thats
the way to do it, nice and steady, one in one out and no canal rage. Just after
Branston Lock, the next 3ft narrow lock, there were a large flock of Canada
geese, adults and 40 or more babies of different sizes, they carried on with
their snacking, quite unnerved by the boats and walkers and dogs passing by. Derek
was planning to moor here and as he tried to find the best spot it started to rain.
We were moored up by 2 24 together with a few more boats, a little tug
called Ivy and a dutch barge called Clara Belle being two of them.
At the side of the boat there was a little moorhen crying for his mum,
she came down the canal with two other
babies, he touched beaks with her and stopped crying, how cool is that. We have got tele, Derek went to shop for
milk, bread and paper, I prepared tea and then we had a snooze before tea
time. The sun has come out and lots and
lots of boats have gone by and a few joined us in the NB swarm.
No comments:
Post a Comment