It was summer yesterday!

Wednesday 31^st May; Calcutt marina to Flecknoe

Yesterday at home I was watering the garden in bright sunshine and short sleeves.  Today, well that is another matter!  We didn’t arrive at the marina till after 2, and by the time we had unpacked, filled the water tank and paid the outstanding mooring fee it was after 4.30. Cloudy and cool all the way.

I took this photo of our mooring before we went home after our last trip.  It’s not an easy mooring as it’s awkward to get our bags on over the stern.  If we had a cruiser stern enclosed at the back, a stern-on mooring like this would make it impossible for the dog to get on or off.

But the bigger problem is that it is also where boats wait to have work done on them (we had an engine service), and while you are away, other boats arrive and moor against you, and when there is also a boat moored opposite – which there was – a 60’ boat hasn’t got the space to get out!  So we had to wait for a couple of the yard staff to hold the two boats that had moored against us out of the way so we could extract ourselves.  But eventually we were on our way out to the Calcutt locks.

The bottom gate moaned and groaned as I operated it but wasn’t too hard,  just heavy in the normal way.  We waited a bit for a hire crew having their first locking lesson in the middle lock, but it wasn’t long before we were up the flight and off towards Napton Junction, where we turned towards Braunston.  The low cloud made it gloomy and we were now travelling into the wind and it was freezing cold.  We just wanted somewhere quiet to moor away from the road, so we added layers and carried on.

Bridge 105

This pretty footbridge is in Lower Shuckborough.  Dave calls it the Monet bridge, but the effect is entirely lost if you look at it from the other direction.  There are long stretches of bank where mooring isn't possible, but we know there are lots of moorings around bridge 102, which leads to Flecknoe, so we had to go on.  Along the way we saw our first goslings of the season, no longer tiny.

By now it was after 6 so we resolved to nab the first available stretch of Armco, which was just before the farm buildings.  It was so cold we almost lit the fire.  Someone else had, we could smell it.  Dave remembered to bring his thermals, but I was bamboozled by the lovely weather at home and hadn't bothered.  Idiot.

3 miles, 3 locks