Buckby to Stoke Bruerne (part 1)

I'm back! Willow has been safely delivered to its new moorings at Northolt, and I'm grateful to its owner for asking me to tackle the final leg of its journey from Jalsea Marine on the Weaver. The weather was excellent, the boat behaved well, and I revisited parts of the Grand Union I hadn't cruised for over twenty years.

Last Friday (13th March 2009) my dad came down to Norwich by train, stayed overnight, and, after getting up early, accompanied me on the drive to Buckby. He'd volunteered to assist on what would otherwise have been a single-handed trip of 87 miles and 83 locks, and I was very glad of his help. We arrived at The New Inn, Buckby, at 10:00, and found Willow moored a little way below the top lock. Alan of Lazy Days had told us he was tied up next to Willow, and we said hello to him and Frances as we were loading our things onto the boat. One of the first things Alan said was, "Do you have a magnet?" He'd lost the keys to his newly purchased locking fuel cap overboard. I searched and I searched with the Sea Searcher magnet, but found nothing. Alan didn't seem at all perturbed, as he said he didn't really like the device anyway, as it seemed to him that it would create a trip hazard when fitted. Still, it's annoying to have to give up on a challenge like that.


Lazy Days in the lead

After saying goodbye to Willow's owner and the crew who had brought the boat from Great Haywood on its previous leg, we set off at about 11:15 with Lazy Days to start the descent of the remaining Buckby Locks. Colin Bailey, of Narrowboat Images, had been photographing in the area and helped us down the flight. This was a gentle introduction (re-introduction) of the art of locking to my dad. For it was his taking of me on a family holiday 34 years earlier which had kick-started my love of canals. They'd hired a narrowboat from Wyvern Shipping in Linslade and cruised to Stoke Bruerne and back in a week.


Alan enjoying life on Lazy Days; my father on Willow behind

We left Alan and Frances at Whilton and continued towards Stoke Bruerne, our scheduled stopping place for the night.


Not much further on, as predicted, we saw Granny Buttons moored by Bridge 23. He was just bidding farewell to the RCR man (that's him walking away) who'd been replacing GB's alternator: Andrew writes about it here.


Andrew invited us to tie alongside and gave us a (very) quick tour of his boat. We reciprocated, and talked for twenty minutes or so. I like the way following people's blogs gives you enough information to be able easily to chat. One feels one already knows the other person. As we were leaving, Lazy Days came up to take our place at the blogmeister's feet, so to speak.

That's enough for now: the story will continue.