Wednesday 27th March

This morning when I went outside to check that the stars had gone to bed,  the chap on NB Noisy Horn was taking down his TV aerial.  We had a chat and it turned out that he was heading to Braunston today to where he has a permanent mooring waiting for him and it would be easier if he could head up the locks with us as he has mobility problems. Fair enough, always willing to help, just a shame it would mean opening and closing both gates on the lock, more work for me.
We had our breakfast whilst he went to buy some kindling down the cut and then set off for the locks.Luckily the first lock was empty so in we went , Mick did his bit of closing one side of lock gates whilst I did the other side and the paddles, whilst chappy bobbed in and out of his cabin for another can of special brew. All the time we were at the locks he talked at Mick very loudly! Occasionally he'd make a phone call, very loudly!

Today everyone seems to have come out onto the cut. There was a boat behind us coming up and we passed at least four going down. So in the short pounds there was a lot of jigging about to be done. At the fourth lock in the flight as I climbed over the top gates to go and close the off side Chappy told me to wait and he'd close it. He climbed up, when reaching the lock side he put his hand on his back with an "Oooo!" Then we all realised that his boat was heading backwards out of the gate, he'd managed to knock it into reverse, so he jumped back onto the roof to rescue it, leaving me to close the gate as I'd intended to. Now it most probably was just a mishap, but strangely enough he didn't offer at any other lock and we didn't really want him to help from then on. He offered to lash the two boats together so that Mick could help with the locks and he would drive the boats. But strangely Mick turned down his offer, especially as he quite often rammed the top gates as he came into a lock and then would disappear into his boat again. As we neared the top of the flight there was a lady readying the last lock for us and I could tell Micks' tether was about to end so I opened everything up as quickly as I could.

We stopped just above the flight to have a cuppa and biscuits and said farewell to NB Noisy Horn. Our tea took quite a while to drink,by which time the boat that was following us up had passed and then another half hour just sailed on by before we started out again for the Calcutt Locks.


As the afternoon passed and we pootled along we saw no sign of NB Noisy Horn or the boat that had been following us we just saw some more snow for a change. Just how many boats are there at Calcutt and the other marinas there! Thousands!

Going up through the locks I suddenly realised why a top gate was open on one of them, I'd stolen a lock! OOps! But when the boat came out from the next lock they winded and then shimmied back and forth back and forth. He apologised for closing the gate as we apologised for stealing the lock.

Left onto what used to be the Oxford Canal and on to Braunston. To warm up we stopped for a late lunch of soup and then carried on. At Braunston Turn we turned right hoping that there would be a mooring somewhere. We came through here a few years back on a hire boat and got the last mooring then, so we hoped it wasn't as busy with the cold even though the number of boats moving had increased today. We passed NB Firefly ( another Carefree boat) and waved. After Bridge 91 there was the familiar view of NB Noisy Horn, we carried on past long term moorings and eventually came to a 48hr sign by the water point where there was space. Phew!

As we were tying up Chappy came by, he wasn't happy someone was in his mooring, he'd nearly thrown them in the cut! Oh dear. In the morning he'd told me it was his birthday, "55 today", then seconds later he said the same to Mick "54 today"! So hopefully he had got a mooring sorted, or maybe not!

Mick has cooked sausage slop and mash  for tea and

a few glasses of wine will finish off the day just nicely.

11 locks 9 miles