With rain forecast this morning and only a few miles to do, we decided we'd wait for the rain to pass before setting off. Adrian had some work to do anyway, so it allowed him to get on with that. The rain was never that heavy, but kept coming and going. By about 11 it appeared to have passed, so we got ready to set off. A few boats had been down, and as we prepared, two more appeared round the corner, followed by a third. I asked the third boat if they were on their own and if so could we join them. They'd actually come down the top lock with the first boat, and the second had only just got in between them. Once we'd sorted that out, a boat moored in front of use also decided to set off, and two more came along from the top lock, so by the time we were on our way down there was still a queue of three.
Things continued very slowly. A couple of locks further down, one of the boats from the pair in front was left behind, as another single boat had appeared from somewhere, so we all swapped locking partners. Boats began to appear in the opposite direction, including two separate single handers. Among the others was a boat we knew well.
Finally we got to the bottom of the locks. It was 1.45 so had taken more than two hours to do six locks. We carried on, having lunch on the move. Just before Weedon, the earthworks where the new bypass bridge will cross the canal and the railway line together are now huge. We also spotted concrete bridge footings; the bridge is due to go in over the winter, with all the work which would normally need a stoppage carried out at night, presumably because they can't stop the West Coast Main Line.
We stopped for some shopping to top up lunch supplies for tomorrow, then stopped again at Rugby Boats for diesel. We had to moor outside two other boats and have the hose passed across to us, as a little 1860 ice breaker was being brought out of water. It had been put in the water yesterday after a three year restoration project, but was today found to be taking on water.
We continued round the corner to the moorings opposite the caravan club field. The M1 and the railway are both a fair distance away here.
6 miles, 6 locks. (395 miles, 287 locks)
