Saturday 2nd July; Crick to Braunston
I went up to the little shop for the paper, early to make sure they hadn’t sold out, and to see if the veg stand outside had anything from the local growers – yes they had, some nice-looking broad beans. We set off somewhat earlier than yesterday, at about 9. We donned our wet-weather gear for the tunnel, which was extremely wet, and then it drizzled on and off all the way to Watford. We arrived at the locks to see a boat ahead of us just leaving the top lock. I went down to book in with the lockie, but annoyingly we had to wait for a boat coming up. As we waited, the Crick winner Even Star arrived so we had a chat while we waited. It’s certainly an interesting boat and they had 300 visitors tramping through at Crick. Eventually it was our turn and here we are in our first lock with Bonjour.
It started to rain as we dropped down. I had my waterproof jacket on, and Dave soon had to pass out my waterproof trousers, but the poor lockie had nothing so he ended up getting very wet. He just ignored the weather and said he’d sit on a shopping bag in the car when he went home. The rain didn’t let up, so not too many pictures today. Here we are leaving the bottom of the staircase.
The Watford locks are easy to operate - just get the paddle opening in the right sequence, and you are fine. We had been this way before and had no problems, unlike a crew member of the boat behind us – a stentorian bellow ‘Not that one!!’ from the lockie stopped him opening ‘white before red’ in the nick of time.
The lockie went back up to help the boat behind and left us to do the last lock by ourselves. A lot of remedial work has been going on, as this shows
But a lot of repairs remain to be done - someone has to arrive at 7.30 in the morning to fill a side pond and pounds part-way down as there is still a lot of leakage further up the flight.
The rain didn’t stop as we cruised on to Norton Junction and turned right towards Braunston. There was space on the moorings so we pulled in for lunch and watched the rain.
It weather appeared to be clearing after lunch, so we set off for Braunston, but within 5 minutes down it came again. Braunston tunnel was lovely and dry, and everything was going well till we met the second boat. I had just gone below to fetch something and the first I knew was a loud bang, a lurch, a shout, another bang. I came back up the steps to find the two boats bumping and grinding (sorry) past each other. The steerer was full of apologies - Dave thought he must have pushed the tiller the wrong way and panicked. Anyway, they had hit the wall then cannoned into us, sending us into the wall on our side.
The rain was getting harder as we emerged but sadly there was no room to moor above the lock, so down we had to go. We were Billy-no-mates, and the gates were horrendously heavy. I managed to deal with most of them – just – but one defeated me and Dave had to climb up the ladder and do it. I blame our non-boating year for my lack of locking fitness. I was getting tired and fed up with the relentless rain, but then oh joy! Plenty of space below the Lord Nelson so there we moored. The rain stopped and the sun came out … so we went to the pub. It would have been rude not to. No free tables for a meal, but we sat in the comfy chairs and enjoyed a pint and a chat with the owners of NB Bison, an old FMC boat converted for leisure use.
The damage from the tunnel collision appears to be restricted to the gunwales – long scrapes on both sides.
The forecast for tomorrow looks ok, so I hope we can dry out a bit!
No signal again tonight.
8½ miles, 10 locks (6 narrow, 4 broad), Crick and Braunston tunnels
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