Crick Show: Day 3

There was heavy rain in the night, and it has rained on and off all day. We set off for the winding hole at about 8.15, and then retraced our steps to Crick. We stopped briefly on the way at Yelvertoft for a top up of water and to get rid of rubbish. Although it was damp, the canal was still rather pretty.

Back at Crick we slotted back into our space and then went to buy all the things we couldn't get yesterday because the sellers didn't take cards. Among the people I talked to was a couple I recognised from the What A Lark blog -- the 'boat-sharers', Amanda and David. It was good to meet them.

This afternoon I was waiting for the announcement of the winners of the favourite boat. This year there was a winner and runner up for narrowboat and widebeam. Bourne Boats came top in the narrowboat category with Threpence Ha'penny, with Braidbar second. Elton Moss built the winning widebeam, and the 9ft wide Pioneer was runner up.

My second cousin, Catherine, and family (including her dad) were at the show, and joined us for the trip back down Watford Locks. As we left it rained hard, so Crick tunnel was drier inside than out. At Watford Locks there was a long and confusing queue. Some boats were going down, then five were to come up, then we were third in another batch to go down. In all, it meant a wait of about two and a half hours. Nigel and I spent quite a lot of time at resetting the top lock to help other boats, and in between we were on our boat moored under the M1 eating a fantastic cake made by Catherine.

Once we were finally going down the locks, they didn't take long at all.

We carried on to Norton Junction, where Catherine and Nigel had left a car. There was no space at the junction, either before or after the turn, so while Nigel went to get fish and chips, we went down the top Buckby lock to the long pound and moored up.

We had a very pleasant rest of the evening with good fish and chips, and because of the long delay at Watford is was around 9.30 when the family left.

11 miles, 8 locks. (53 miles, 29 locks)