Return from blacking: Day 4

I was expecting family crew mid-morning, so I went out for a walk after breakfast, following a circular route which took me up through Stoke Bruerne churchyard, across fields to Shutlanger, and then back alongside a stream which feeds into the River Tove.  On cue at 10.30 my second cousin, Catherine, arrived, with Nigel and Matthew; Grace was at work at her Saturday job.  We set off down the locks, with Matthew at the helm.  At the first lock were Jules and Richard with Towcester, with a modern boat tied alongside.

An upcoming pair of boats two locks further down topped up the next locks and opened it for us, then we swapped with them.

A boat had just come up the fourth lock, which just needed a bit of a top up, and two boats were cominup the bottom lock meaning we could go straight in.  The five locks had taken barely 40 minutes, which felt like some kind of record.

As it wasn’t even yet 11.30, we came up with a plan for the next part of the day.  Catherine and Co stayed on board for the journey to the marina, with Matthew steering. At one point we could see a boat across the canal up ahead, but we still don’t know why; another boat coming the other way eventually got through and the crossways boat sorted himself out and carried on.  We caught him up as he was going on tickover the whole time.  After Bridge 62 we pulled in and moored up, and I rustled up some ham and salad wraps for lunch, where we had a good catch up of events over the past few weeks.  Matthew steered the remaining mile or so, but did let me take over for the turn into the marina and the reverse into our berth.  We all jumped in my car and I took the family back to their car by the locks in Stoke Bruerne.  It was a really lovely few hours, and all the better for being semi-unplanned.

Back at the marina, our neighbours had gone out so I have a bit more of a view.  I have filled the water tank (which must have been pretty empty as it took ages) and I’ve also taken everything off the well deck and given the whole area a mop. It will almost certainly be full of cobwebs again within days, but there’s not much I can do about that.  I have also been ‘entertained’ by some sort of jazz band at the Navigation pub.  At first I thought it was a case of cruelty to cats, but some people seem to have enjoyed the vocalist; I’m hoping they were only booked for the afternoon and not the whole evening.

Back to work tomorrow.

6 miles, 5 locks.  (17 miles, 7 locks)