Crick Show: Day 4

There was tremendous rain in the night, but it actually hasn’t rained as much as we’d feared it might during the day.  We had a lazy start, and then wandered over to the show ground mid morning.  It was fairly quiet, but we still managed to spend quite a lot of time talking to people such as Tim Tyler, and Adrian went and looked at a couple of boats.  Later on we also had a chat with Robbie Cumming from the Canal Boat Diaries.  This afternoon, the announcement was made of the winners of the favourite boat votes, with Oakums winning the narrowboat category, with Braidbar second and Weston third.

Finesse won the favourite widebeam, with Bespoke Boats second and Thames Solar third.

The presentation was done earlier than usual, so we were able to set off by 3pm.  When we got to Watford Locks, there were no boats waiting, one was just coming up the top lock, and the lock keeper said we could go in a straight down.  Sometimes on the final day of the show we have waited a couple of hours.

At the bottom of the staircase, we crossed with a hire boat which had come up the bottom two locks.

We carried on to a nice spot just beyond Bridge 3, where we slotted into a space between two other boats.

4 miles, 7 locks.  (39 miles, 28 locks)

Pre Crick: Day 4

We were awake and up pretty early, possibly because of the noise of the motorway and the trains. By about 8 o'clock I was making a lemon drizzle tray bake, as I knew we had visitors later. Once that was out of the oven, I walked back up to the broken lock to see what was going on. On the way, I passed a floating crane on the way up, which soon arrived where it was needed.

The problem was that the pin on the bottom of the lock gate was sitting on the cill, and the guys were having trouble lifting it off, and getting it back into its pot. The crane was really only there to support the gate -- it wasn't really big enough to do a full lift. The heavy work was done by a trolley jack and crow bars.

Progress seemed slow, so after a while I headed back. Our visitors, the Herbies, Kath and Neil, who'd dropped in en route from Cropredy to Cambridge, had already arrived -- and we had a great couple of hours catching up with them. We normally see them a lot at Crick, but this year they've moved their boat to Cropredy so won't be at the show.

At lunchtime, news filtered through that the gate was back in place, the CRT staff were fixing it in place, and there would be movement this afternoon. It was about 3pm when the first boats went into the lock; I walked up to the bottom lock with a windlass to help, as had two guys from the camping boat, William, which was much further back in the queue -- including Ryan who's usually on the coal boat, Southern Cross. The procession of boats heading for the lock reminded me of the Heathrow approach flight path.

We were in the fifth locking, sharing with the Mannings on Ivy, the little boat I wrote a feature on a couple of years ago.

After a few locks we started to meet boats coming down. At the lock which had caused the problem, the gate has been wedged into place with struts, and the balance beam has been cut off as it was damaged. It means only one gate is operational on that side.

We got to the top lock in two hours, which isn't bad going in the circumstances. We turned right at Norton Junction onto the Leicester Section; the moorings were quite busy so we carried on to a spot we've used before, near Bridge 3. There's a field of barley opposite, but mostly it's quiet -- you can hear the motorway and trains if you listen for them, but birdsong is the main sound here. Tomorrow we'll go past Crick -- we may have lost most of the time we were expecting to spend up on the summit, but we'll at least get one night there.

3 miles, 7 locks. (23 miles, 14 locks)

 

Crick Show: Day 3

With no particular reason to get up early, we got up late.  At about 10am, we set off north to turn the boat around at the Crack's Hill winding hole.  It's tickover all the way there because of the show mornings, and tickover all the way back again.  We tied back in our spot, just facing the other way, about forty minutes later.  Then we walked into Crick village to do a bit of shopping for the return journey.

We spent the next hour or so on the boat, doing some work.  At lunchtime we went over to the show site and had a Brie and bacon panini.  A little while later we met my relatives Catherine and Nigel, and their kids, Grace and Matthew.  Adrian and I somehow found ourselves of the dodgems with the kids, who then went on the big slide.

At 3pm, the winner of the favourite boat vote was announced. The winner was Boating Leisure Services at Heyford Fields, Braidbar were second, and Wharf House were third.

Shortly afterwards we set off.  Nigel drove to Watford Locks, while Catherine and the children came on the boat.  They particularly like tunnels; Grace was on the well deck, and Matthew came on the stern with me.  We passed one boat during our passage.

At the locks, two boats including Areandare were going down and there was no queue, so we could set off straight away.  This was in great contrast to last year when we were seventh in the queue.  Consequently we made rapid progress.  It was the same lock keeper as we had on the way up.

We boat arrived at the bottom lock, so we passed them in the first pound.

The family left to walk back to their car when we got to the bottom of the locks at about 5pm, and we set off to find a mooring.  Adrian started dinner by putting a chicken in the oven, and we stopped a little while later just through Bridge 3.

5 miles, 7 locks. (32 miles, 28 locks)

Crick Show -- Day 3

It's rained on and off all day, and more on than off.  With no particular reason to get up early, we were a bit later to surface.  Once we'd had breakfast we decided to turn the boat around so set off up to the winding hole.  Having turned, we slotted back into our space.  The whole thing took about forty minutes.

As it was raining, we both did some work before heading over to the show ground at lunchtime.  We hadn't been there long when there was a text from Kath asking if one of us would go on the waltzer with her granddaughter, Grace, as neither she nor Neil could face it.  Adrian was volunteered, and it's safe to say he enjoyed it less than Grace did.  Next stop was the dodgem cars, where I was the accompanying adult.

We were waiting for the result of the vote for Favourite Boat at the show.  It went to Shackleton, by Boating Leisure Services at Heyford Fields Marina.

We set off a little before 3.30, trying to get ahead of the crowds a bit.  We passed two boats in the tunnel, then arrived at Watford Locks.  One boat was coming up, and there was a queue in our direction.  One boat was in the pound below the top lock, and we were seventh in the queue at the top.  I went ahead with a windlass and helped the six boats in front of us down the top lock.  We were a bit too efficient, as we kept having to wait for the top lock of the staircase to be reset.

Finally it was our turn.  People from the five boats which had arrived behind us came to help us down the top lock, then it was a fairly rapid descent of the staircase.

With the two lower single locks done, we decided we'd stop at the first nice looking spot we saw.  A bit of piling just before Bridge 3 looked appealing, so we pulled in.  It was nearly 7pm -- a pretty late finish for us these days.  With the queue at the locks, a pretty short journey had taken a long time.  Fortunately, Adrian had started to make dinner hours ago, so we could eat soon after stopping.

5 miles, 7 locks.