Thursday 28th March

We were moored just a boat length from a water point so we moved up and filled up with water. The Gongoozler's Rest Cafe seemed to be doing good business for a cold Thursday morning. We then headed off towards Braunston bottom lock. It was very busy round here with lots of moored boats, both shared boats from BCBM and hire boats from Union Canal Carriers.
There was a CRT chap doing some work on one of the bottom gates of the first Braunston lock. Once we were in the lock he helped us through. Some of these locks were in good condition and some were in need of much repair to brickwork. Some locks had two top ground paddles as well as four gate paddles and one lock only had one ground paddle in operation. Consequenty this lock took ages to fill.
After the top lock it is only a short way to Braunston tunnel. In this short distance seven boats came out of the tunnel and passed us. Braunston is a two way tunnel and I was glad we had not met these boats in the tunnel. As it happens we had to pass two boats in the tunnel. There's not much room to spare.
We turned left at Norton Junction and headed up the Leicester line. We has a suss out of the fuel filling and pump out at Weltonfield Marina that we will have to use tomorrow. Then we passed Welton Haven Marina which is going to be WD's new home. It looks very peaceful and the nearby M1 wasn't too noisy.
The M1 Watford Gap services came next on the right although there is no official entrance from the canal. It would however be quite easy to climb over the fence should you so desire although the moorings were not good. 

We then spent a pleasant hour or so going up the Watford flight. They are narrow locks and according to Pip were a joy to operate. The M1 is close by and there is a lot of noise. Pip got talking to the volunteer lock keeper. He said that he enjoys working this flight more than Foxton as you don't get the sightseers only boaters.

On through ever quietening countryside as the M1 heads away from the canal. I had to make an emergency stop just south of Crick Tunnel as a boat came through a bridge hole on a blind bend. Then into the tunnel and this time we didn't meet anything coming the other way. 
Our destination for this evening was to meet one of Pip's long time friends Lizzie who lives on NB Panda, moored at Crick Marina. As we passed Panda we knocked on the roof and said "Hello". We have been invited for an evening on board Panda and made arrangements to meet up later.
A bit further up the canal we winded and then moored up on the visitor moorings opposite the Marina.
We had a lovely evening with Lizzie talking about Panda, WD and our own boat that is yet to be built. There was also reminiscing about the times Pip and Lizzie worked together at Watford.
A late finish, the canal looked like it was getting ready to freeze over as we walked back to WD.

9 miles, 9 ordinary locks, 1 staircase of 4 locks, 2 tunnels.

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

Tuesday 26th March

It was a cold windy morning again. We wrapped up warm again, the amount of layers we are putting on on each day is becoming tedious. This morning I had seven layers on top and three on my legs along with two thick pairs of socks. The cold still gets through after a couple of hours at the tiller. The washing machine was set going to make sure we had more clean layers tomorrow.
We were moored a short way from lock 23 (Radford Bottom Lock) on the Grand Union. The locks are broad locks so it is possible to get two boats in side by side. This saves a bit of the workload when working through the locks and also saves CRT some water. We saw two boats go past us before we were ready to set off. We got to the first lock and saw a boat already just about to exit the lock. We worked out that they were single handing (only one person on the boat). We didn't want to share with a single hander as this would increase Pip's workload rather than decrease it. He went off, leaving a top gate open behind him. We emptied the lock and worked our own way through it and the next two locks with no sign of the single hander ahead except that the locks were full and a top gate left open.
A bit further along we spotted a bird of prey. Not being bird watchers we've no idea what it was. We took a picture but the new cheap camera Pip bought yesterday doesn't do as good quality pictures as her old broken one.

Then I spotted an old twin propeller engine aeroplane. It looked very much like a Dakota DC3. 

There was a water point at bridge 32 so we stopped for a fill up. This bridge carries the Fosse Way Roman road over the canal. I popped up to have a look at it. It was of course quite straight and cars were speeding fastly by. It reminded me of a time when I once drove along it most of the way from Bristol to Lincoln so I must have gone over this bridge then.

When we got to the next lock we spotted a boat approaching behind us and a chap walking along the towpath with a windlass in hand. It turned out to be the Germans that we had met in Warwick yesterday when they had given us a cup of mulled wine. So we shared the next five locks with them followed by a staircase of two locks. There was no mulled wine on offer today however they were making good inroads into a supply of German beer. 

We said goodbye to the Germans at the top of the staircase and they pootled off in front. They wanted to do the Stockton flight today and we didn't. We stopped for some warming soup and a sandwich then headed off towards Long Itchington. I'll resist the urge to make stupid comments about the name of this village. We went up through two more locks. There was a boatyard at the 2nd lock so I went off to buy our 5th bag of coal of the holiday! 

We wanted to moor in the next pound which was reasonably short. If we didn't we would be committed to doing eight more locks. There were no visitors moorings on this pound at all. Only long stay permit holders moorings. There were some moorings on the off side belonging to the pub the Blue Lias. These moorings were only available to customers of the pub. So we moored up there. Oh well, we'd HAVE to go and have some beer later then.

Moored opposite us on the long term moorings was a tatty looking boat we recognised from one of last year's trips. Pip had named it NB Noisy Horn because of his tendency to use the horn freely. A link to that day's blog is here:

http://goingtothedocks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/sunday-6th-may.html

We ate a nice pasta bolognaise cooked by Pip and then went off for the compulsory beer, some very nice Adnams Broadside.

5.5 miles, 10 locks, 1 staircase of 2 locks.

Monday 25th March

So mission today, Hatton flight. Whilst we were getting bowls of porridge ready this morning a boat went past us in the direction of the locks, then another just as the porridge bowls were emptying. On going outside it seemed that there might be a boat with definitely more than one person on board which looked like they were keeping an eye out for another boat. Our plan this morning was to head to the top of the locks to fill with water and hope another boat would come along that we could share the locks with, but it looked like we wouldn't have to wait. It took at least 5 minutes for me to force the rope at the front of the boat into submission as it was totally frozen again.As we neared the boat one of the crew asked if we were heading down and it turned out that there were six of them aboard, Brilliant!

With one steering on each boat it meant that three locks could be set up by a pair of crew. Easy going. There was a comment to me that they hoped we'd got a large kettle! But as I'm not an ordinary girl I was not going to miss out on the locks and just make tea for all the chaps.


The paddles are hydraulic and of a design I've not seen before with a strange locking mechanism. Quite hard work in fact and the gates on icy ground were a little bit tricksy. The thought of only having to do a minimum of seven of the twenty one was a relief, even though I ended up doing more.


The other boat was a hire boat from Alvechurch, six chaps of varying ages who go on holiday every year February or March and have done for the last twenty six years, They've been narrowboating for the last ten. So we were with people who knew what they were doing. I paired up with their leader, who after a while realised that I wouldn't be putting the kettle on and went off to make his crew a brew. This occasionally left me at a lock to set it by myself, but that didn't matter. Mick said the chap steering their boat was a bit gung-ho at times, this was evident when we came to the last few locks!




As you come down through the top few locks you can see the task ahead, but also the spires of Warwick below, the sun just started to show it's face for the first time in days, quite a sight. The ice gradually melted away, but this left some very muddy walking between locks. We started the flight at 9.45am and finished 12.15pm. Not bad as a few had to be filled and we only passed a couple of boats going up. At the last lock we said our goodbyes and thank yous and headed onwards on our own. They were going to wind and go to the pub for a few pints, do a bit of shopping and then head back up tomorrow.


We turned left and pulled up at the water point just by The Cape of Good Hope pub. The smells were good coming from there, but even though it had come highly recommended it was a bit early in the day to stop. It is going on the list to do when we have more time for definite.
There was a hire boat moored very close to the water point and a German chap came to have a chat as our water tank filled. After chatting for a while he invited us to join him in a glass of mulled wine that his friend on board was just preparing. Well how can you turn an offer down like that! We were offered a top up, which we declined as we still wanted to do two more locks and breakfast had been quite some time ago.

On we pressed stopping at Kate Boats to fill up with diesel, have a pump out and buy some more coal. They had no diesel, no coal and no-one who could do a pump out, but we could do it ourselves for £15. So pump out completed and only £14 cash in our pockets we got let off the extra £1. Tescos is just a short while on by bridge 46 and quite close to the canal. You can't quite take your trolley back to the boat but nearly. We stocked up on essentials and a new camera, mine broke two days ago, the new one was cheap so we'll see how it goes.Then we pootled along through Warwick and Royal Leamington Spa passing a Lidl (where you could get your trolley to the boat) and a new huge Morrisons which looked like it was going to open soon (they haven't put any moorings in though!).

We are now moored just after bridge 35 where the canal leaves the road behind for a while and a lot of other boats are moored. Most of the snow has gone now, hard to think that two days ago I was trudging through a foot high in some places. Mick is cooking Kedgeree for our tea. Hmm Yumm!

8 miles 23 locks

Sunday 24th March

Our 3rd week out on WD. We've never done three consecutive weeks on a narrowboat before. It is nice not having to work again tomorrow.

There was another inch or so of snow outside overnight. Our personal picnic spot outside our window looked very wintry. 

After breakfast we set off. Well, we tried to but the ignition lock to start the engine was frozen up and I couldn't get the key in. I warmed the key up with a lighter and this did the trick. Co-owners of WD will recognise this photo:

Then we found that our ropes were frozen solid and we couldn't untie them. Eventually we got them untied and set off. Within a few yards we turned right onto the Grand Union Main Line and headed southwards in the direction of Warwick. It was very cold and windy with snow blowing in strongly from the east. Fairly soon we noticed that we were being followed by another boat. We thought this was a good thing as it meant we would have someone to share the upcoming Hatton Flight of 21 broad locks with. Fairly soon after that we noticed another boat behind that one. These two boats seemed to be having a "see who can use the horn the most" match. This match continued for most of the way, especially so in Shrewley Tunnel. It was still very cold and windy and when we got just short of the Hatton locks we pulled over and tied up. We had already decided that we didn't want to share 21 locks with the lads behind. The two boats behind were both from the same hire company and were full of young lads who obviously knew each other and were having a good time involving beer. We let them pass and they brested up together and set off down the locks. It was still snowing and still blowing a strong wind. In the absence of another boat to share the locks with we decided to call it a day even though it was only 1PM. We had a cup of tea and a sit down. Later we went for a walk to look at the locks. 

And here is Pip looking forward to tomorrow:

Then we went back to the boat and settled down by the fire and watched the first Harry Potter film. They all looked very young.
Meatballs for tea.

Five miles. Zero locks.

Saturday 23rd March PM

Breakfast consumed, ropes found we were off. Passing a house a lady looked on wondering what we were doing. So did I when we reached the lift bridge! I tried to lift it but after major huffing and puffing and only managing a foot in the upwards direction, I lowered it back again and went to Mick on the boat. maybe if we swept the snow off it might just be possible. Mick did the honours, but a tractor had been across at some point during the morning so quite a bit had got compacted and was hard to remove. I then gave it another go, more huffing and puffing and eventually it was high enough to get under.Winding it back down wasn't that much easier, but we were determined to make some progress today no matter how slow.

The first lock came a bit too soon for my liking. Very pretty it was though. A couple were returning to their boat with their dog that had snowballs for ears. They'd already defrosted it once this morning. They had been to check on the locks and reckonned that you could moor after the fourth one. So we thought we'd head for there and see how it was before carrying on. Mounds of snow on the gates made it hard to climb from one side to the other with little legs safely and I certainly wasn't going to jump from one bottom gate to the other today. The first two locks I had to fill before we could proceed. On reaching the small pound between the fourth and fifth lock of the flight we checked in Nicholsons, there was another nine before a possible gap to moor in. Okay lets go for it.

I get great pleasure in walking in virgin snow and got the chance to do this lots today. Everyone was staying nice and cosy inside.
The slush puppy on the cut turned out to be tripe flavoured! It creased up like fabric in the locks as the boat came in. Tripe was better than ice.
Walking round and round the locks is okay but being very aware that you just don't know if there are any holes under the snow makes you wary of where you tread.Gradually it stopped snowing which made it more pleasurable even though my gloves were starting to drip.

We were originally going to be joined by Marion and John today to help us down the Hatton flight, but with the weather as it was, travelling up from Eastbourne was going to be a feat in itself. So they stayed at home with their supplies of cake. Never mind we had a bag of chocolate mis shapes from Cadburys to keep us going. After the ninth lock in a row we stopped and had a bite to eat and assess the afternoon. Only another six locks til we would reach Kingswood Junction where we would turn onto The Grand Union Main Line and head to Hatton. So just as it started to snow again we set off.

Someone had been down these locks today so there was no virgin snow for me to trample in. We stopped before lock 19 to fill up with water which took a bit of doing as the bow thruster locker where the hose is kept was frozen shut, but we managed in the end. Around here there was definitely more signs of life with walkers and other boaters about the place. Then the tricky navigation around the junction. If you had a short boat you could go round in circles here admittedly you'd be going up and down locks all day. With it being 5pm we decided to call it a day and moored before turning right onto the Grand Union just by a service block. Showers to spruce ourselves up, gloves rung out and drying by the stove we headed out for a meal at The Navigation. It was slow going on the tow path there, Mick had Lamb and I had duck in the very warm pub then back along the road for one last glass of wine before bed.


2.5 miles, 1 very heavy lift bridge, 19 locks

Saturday 23rd March am

Well it's snowed a bit during the night. We might need a spade to dig WD out at this rate! Mick with some assistance has found the broom and managed to clear the rear part of the boat. More snow is forecast with big winds around here today and the geese don't sound too amused!

Breakfast first and then see how we do. There is a lift bridge up ahead and the weight of the snow may just make it that little bit difficult to lift. Canal plan suggests that we can get to Welford Haven in three days if we do 39 locks today! Now on a normal day I'd be up for the challenge, but I'm not so sure about today.

The canal is turning into one big slush puppy and I think the locks might be just a bit more work and slippier than normal. At least next years Christmas card is now sorted.

Look back later to see if we've dug ourselves out, if the lift bridge would lift, if the slush puppy is strawberry or bubble gum flavoured.