Easter Cruise 2014: Weedon to Crick

Despite the proximity of the West Coast Main Line to our mooring last night, we both slept well. I think it was partly due to our having spent three and a half hours in the wind and sun scraping and painting at Gayton Junction. (Jan told me off for not mentioning that she, too, joined the work party and did her bit.)

We set off from Weedon at about 0945, and caught up with a boat just as we approached Buckby Locks. This was excellent, as Moonshadow II made good locking partners. Jan was talking to the woman steerer while I operated the locks with her husband. We talked as well, but probably not as much! Jan told me afterwards that they wanted to cruise the Thames tideway, so she gave them a card with my blog details on with instructions to look up Indigo Dream's blog - Richard and Sue, you might get contacted in the next few days...

At Buckby Top Lock we took on water while having lunch, then turned right onto the Leicester Section. Here we soon caught up with a very slow boat - fortunately it wasn't much before Watford Locks. We were up the locks in short order, not having to wait for anyone coming down. We caught up with the slow boat in Crick Tunnel; again, I was pleased that we were mooring up just the other side.

After a cup of tea we wandered over towards Crick Marina with the intention of enquiring about mooring there, but the sign indicated that they had closed fifteen minutes earlier. So we walked in to the village of Crick, used the cash machine, and bought supplies from the Co-op. After dumping these back at the boat we returned to the village, specifically The Red Lion, and had a very good meal there. I had pork hock - loads of tasty meat (very similar to last night's shoulder of lamb. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced it was pork and not lamb!) - and Jan had apricot chicken, also good I'm told. The veg was a bit overcooked, but very tasty. Chips were much better than the "new potatoes" which looked and tasted as though they had just come out of a tin.

Here we are, then, back on board Jubilee, ready for an early night (I'm determined to get away before Mr Slow tomorrow!)

Apologies again for the lack of photos...