It was not possible to add a mooring map to this page but there is a link in the sidebar
We are free at last from the constraints of the marina and starting our continuous cruising lives - Hurrahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
The marina eventually came good and carried out all required tasks and we were able to leave as planned on Monday 5th July. We had quite a send off with lots of people standing on the backs of their boats or on the wharf waving us goodbye (they may of course have been saying “sod off and don’t come back").
We have now completed one full week as continuous cruisers, fortunately we have had pal Mark with us as we have found the large double locks of the Grand Union Canal, with our current fitness levels, quite a handful both in terms of the sheer weight of the actual lock gates (around 4 tons each) and the various sluice gates some of which were a real tousle to open and close. With two narrowboats in the lock the crew from each boat should make transiting it easier and with the Braunston flight and the Buckby flight thats what happened with one crew from the other boat and two from ours we were able to have two working the lock the boats were in and the third person going ahead to get the next lock ready - easy peasy but all the other shared locks with have been with hire boats crewed by people with little or no training making lock flights such as the flight of seven locks at Stoke Bruerne damned hard work. so much so that we had a boat meeting on Friday 9th July and decided to abandon our journey to London, the Lee and Stort navigations with a total number of 132 wide locks on its 145 miles and return to the midlands/northern narrow canals with their narrow locks that take just one boat at a time and leave the London area for another day when our skill and fitness levels improve.
We got as far south as the marked point on the map below (just above of the start of the Aylesbury Arm) turned around and started back, and by Sunday evening had reached as far back as Newport Pagnell.
However our first seven days were still in the main very enjoyable. After leaving the marina we followed old ground until we reachedBraunston Marina, we were now on new ground. The first challange was Braunton Locks where we had to ascend the (35’ - 6” rise) 7 lock flight. We had a good lock partner so the assent was quite speedy despite one of the gates on lock four being locked shut for repairs. The first boat in shuffleing across the lock to allow the second boat to enter. Almost immediately after the lock flight is the Braunston Tunnel 2042 yards long with a kink in the middle.
After spending the night at Norton Junction we carried on to the next obsticle - the Buckby locks (62’-10” drop). After we went through the first lock we found a boat waiting for us in the second. They had spotted us coming too late to wait at the first lock so waited at the next. Not only was that kind (and good canal manners) they were good lock buddies who, were it not for a low pound at the third where we had to wait for the CRT (Canal River Trtust) to come and get it filled, would have got us through the lock in record time. We spent that night moored in the village of Weedon Bec where we were able to stock up at the local Tesco Express.
Onward ever onward. Wednesdays main challenge was Blissworth Tunnel, At 3,075 yards (2,812 m) long it is the the longest wide, freely navigable tunnel in Europe (it’s wide enough for two narrowboats to pass in opposite directions) and the third-longest navigable canal tunnel in the UK, after Standedge Tunnel and Dudley Tunnel but just the the ninth-longest canal tunnel in the world and is about 143 feet (43m) below ground level. As said above there is room for two boats to pass but when it happens the tunnel seems very narrow indeed.
The view behind in the Blissworth Tunnel
After a visit to the Stoke Bruerne and the Canal Museum we continued down the 7 locks (56’ - 0”) of the Stoke Flight - nightmare!!! We were paired with a hire boat with two women “helping" - well!!! suffice to say it was bloody hard work, the phrase chocolate fire guard comes to mind.
Earlier in the day we thought we had engine problems. The engine note would drop and then pick up after a few minutes. We were baffled until we realised that Sue was ironing (wow - she knows how to enjoy herself) and as the iron was clicking on and off so the engine note was dropping and rising much as a generator when put under load. We have since spoken to other boaters who experience the same when using the inverter under heavy load.
Thursday, a fine day although cloudy was notable by just one event, that of transiting the Iron Trunk Aqueduct. I took the short video (sorry it’s such poor quality) of the transit, but to see what the aqueduct looks like from other perspectives you can follow the link above to the gallery page. At the end of the day we moored on the outskirts of Milton Keynes.
Friday was marked by very little we filled the water tank and while doing so spotted a young sparrow floating in the water on the point of drowning. I hooked it out and held it in my hot sweaty hand for a while while the feathers started to dry and when I put it in the hedge (hoping it was out of the way of any passing cats) the tiny bird seemed to be getting over the schock and cold and getting quite fiesty. I like to think it survived.
There seems to be quite a lot of wildlife on the canals amongst which we have today seen more Grey Herons than you can shake a stick at and at least three Red Kites.
Friday was also the day, after mooring in the persisting rain, on a mooring so rough we needed the plank to get on and off, we had the boat meeting and decided we would turn around at the next winding hole and make our way back to the narrow canals and narrow locks of the midlands and the north.
Our first task Saturday was to find a winding hole to turn round. That was two miles and one lock away so it was over two hours before we had done two miles down' gone down the lock’ winded' gone back up the lock and returned to where we had spent the night. Just as we reached last nights mooring it was noticed that the engine ammeter was registering nothing rather than its usual 13.8. we stopped and moored up and checked the two fan belts, they were both OK. That having exhausted our electrical knowledge we were just about to call the RCR when I noticed the ignition was switched off, switching it back on solved the problem and we made a mental note to be careful that the cork flotation ball does not get caught on anything and pull the key into the closed position, which was we deduced the only way it could have got turned off.
Saturday and Sunday were spent retracing our steps towards Norton Junction (where we moored on our first night out) and by Sunday evening we had chugged through Milton Keynes with 28 miles to go before we would turn off and head to our new destination of Market Harborough.
During that first seven days we covered 77.25 miles, passed through 49 (heartbreaking) locks and added 44 hours to the engine’s run time total