To Crick: Day 18

A slightly worrying moment when I fired up the engine this morning — it was a bit spluttery, which is unusual.  Revving it a bit seemed to bring it back to normal, so I’m  hoping it was just the aftermath of the fuel works the other day.  We set off at 8.30, and were almost immediately at Norton Junction.

We turned left onto the Leicester Line, which is quite a tight turn from this direction — then stopped straight away at the rather awkwardly placed water point just through the bridge.  We got more washing on so we’re now up to date, and got the tank filling.

It’s not a particularly fast tap, so even though we’d put some water in at Braunston yesterday morning it took a while — in fact the washing machine was onto the spin cycle before we left.  There’s a mile or so to Watford Locks, and there was one boat waiting when we arrived.  I went and checked in with the lock keeper, who said there was a boat coming down the second lock, then the first boat would be coming up and we could follow.  A single-hander also arrived behind us.  The wait was quite short, and we were soon on our way up the two single locks at the bottom.

The lock keeper who was at the bottom lock stayed there to help the single hander, so by the time we were in the staircase of four locks we were left to our own devices, which was quite nice.

The single lock at the top was ready for us when we got there.  The whole lot only took about 35 minutes.

Then we were on the lookout for a mooring, preferably around Bridge 9.  Lots of the usual spaces were very busy, so when the piling just through the bridge was free, we jumped on it.  Since then a boat has moored behind, and one briefly moored in front, until Adrian assured them they’d be able to get on their booked Crick Show mooring today if they wanted to.  We were expecting Andy and Helen this evening, but they’re stuck at the bottom of the locks because the lockie said there wasn’t enough time for them to get up the flight before closing time.

This afternoon, we washed the roof of the boat, which was badly in need of attention, and then did the towpath side.  We’ll do the other side when we get to Crick tomorrow, assuming it’s accessible.

3 miles, 7 locks.  (109 miles, 132 locks)