Apparently it rained in the night, although I didn’t hear it. It was pretty gloomy this morning, and we set off just after 8, making the very short journey to the junction where we turned left for Buckby Locks. The top one had a bottom gate open and both bottom paddles up, so I went to check whether someone was about to come up. There was no-one there, so I re-set the lock for us.
At the third lock we met a boat which had just done down. He said the two locks he’d done this morning had both had both bottom gates open and both paddles up. He agreed to wait for us at the next lock. We assumed he was single handing, but in fact his wife was setting ahead; we didn’t actually see her until the bottom lock.
We were down by 10am, which was good going. It had been raining lightly, but now came on harder at times. Before Furnace Wharf, a boat which had been sunk and was drifting about in the water last week had now been lifted onto the towpath.
We plodded along to Heyford Fields, where we tied up on the outside for Dave to have another look at the Eberspacher. Although it had worked after last week’s loan brain was fitted, it didn’t work at Crick, with the controller doing odd things. Anyway, Dave diagnosed a fuse problem and Josh fixed it, so all was well. We’d been there about an hour and a half, and it hadn’t rained the whole time, just like last week. Similarly, as soon as we set off again, the rain came back.
We moored in a spot we like before Bridge 46. We had seen What A Lark a couple of times earlier. We passed the moored at Standing Barn Bridge, then they passed us at Heyford Fields. After we’d moored, they came back the other way and pulled in to stop too. Lisa and Davis came round for first tea and biscuits, which then seamlessly morphed into wine and crisps, along with plenty of chat. We know lots of the same people, yet it’s taken years for us to actually meet — but it was worth the wait!
12 miles, 7 locks. (61 miles, 49 locks)
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