As it was a bank holiday, we had a cooked breakfast including very nice bacon and black pudding from the Braunston butcher. We started a wash load, then set off when the wash part of the cycle was done, having said our goodbyes to the Momentous crew. It’s a very familiar stretch of water for us from when we were based at Brinklow, but the countryside is still lovely to look at. At one point we passed a boat going the other way whose skipper knew my name! He said he’d seen us on the Thames ten years ago — so I’m wondering if it was Mike, who formed a convoy with us when we did the tidal section from Limehouse to Teddington in 2014. The boat looked different, but of course it could have been repainted, or even be a different boat. If you’re reading this, let me know!
Big things are happening at Blue Haven Marine. The old building has been replaced by a very tall new one, which seems to have a dock inside with a substantial lift. There’s also a massive crane, but the boat on the bank to the left of it was on a rather alarming angle — it looked as though one shove would have it sliding back into the water.
We soon got to Hillmorton Locks, scene of many a queue and general hold up. But today a boat had just left the left hand lock meaning we could go straight in. One was coming up the paired lock, so we had a one-up-one-down situation.
At the middle pair, the left hand one just needed an inch or two of water to top it up before we could go in. These are the ones with the poetry on the balance beams.
On the bridge before the bottom lock, Adrian found a radio aerial hanging from a groove in the bridge, having apparently been ripped off a boat, so he removed it! The right hand bottom lock again needed just a little topping up. All in all, we had flown down the three locks, all of them in our favour, and without another boat in sight. And there weren’t any volunteer lock keepers to get in the way either!
We stopped at the water point below the locks to replace the water the washing machine had used. While that happened, I walked back with a bag of rubbish and chatted to a man walking his ferret. I also evicted many spiders from the well deck, encouraging them to take up land-based activities in Warwickshire. We set off again aiming for a mooring by the golf course. There were lots of boats here, including Derwent6, but we slotted into the one available spot.
This afternoon, Adrian has been working, to minimise the hours he needs to do later in the week, and I have been writing a boat test. Many boats have gone by, including lots of hire boats that have recently set off. Some have been too fast, and a few have been encouraged to go slower by boaters nearby. There will now be a short pause in proceedings, as we both have to work for a few days.
7 miles, 3 locks. (35 miles, 23 locks)
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