David and Lisa on What A Lark were getting ready to leave this morning at the same time we were — but the local swan apparently didn’t want them to go.
We left at about 8.15, on a really lovely sunny morning — so different from yesterday.
We passed five boats in Blisworth Tunnel, all of them in the final third. The last of them was only just inside, and was another Braidbar. We emerged into the sunshine.
As we approached the locks, Robbie Cumming was just mooring up. A boat was just going in the top lock and a lock keeper opened the other gate so we could join them. We did the top two locks with them, but at the third lock there was a single boat — a guy with the usual story of having bought a boat at Whilton Marina and being on his way to London. Needless to say, he had very little idea what to do. Our partner boat joined him, much to the relief of the volunteer lock keeper, leaving us on our own.
We made steady progress with a boat or two coming up. When we got to the bottom lock, we had to wait for a boat to come in, and there appeared to be chaos below the locks, with boats everywhere.
A stiff breeze made the entry into the marina a bit tricky, but made the reverse into our berth very easy. Adrian had done most of the packing as we came along, so had lunch moved everything to the car, and set off at about 2pm. We had both cars at the marina, so while Adrian headed straight home, I went to Moonraker to pick up a new suction mount for the tv antenna. That meant I came a completely different route, which took much much longer!
10 miles, 7 locks. (71 miles, 56 locks)
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