Earlier this evening I noticed that the pound we're moored in at Braunston, that between Locks 2 and 3, had gone down by almost a foot. Oops! I grabbed a windlass and went down to Lock 2 to check that all paddles were down. They were, but the bottom gates were not completely closed and there was a big water leak from the top gates.
This was having the effect of draining the pound. A longish pound, with six boats moored in it. I held the bottom gates shut while the water built up behind them. As long as no-one goes down the locks tonight we should now be safe from grounding.
To see how much the level has dropped I happened to take a "before" photo of the twin culverts opposite us earlier in the day. Compare it to the "after" photo I took before going to investigate the leakage.
 |
| before |
 |
| after |
Before this moderate excitement Jan and I went for a walk. Ally had come for the day, bringing Josiah, of course, so Jan carried Josiah in a "Connecta" baby carrier while Ally had a nap on the boat. We walked along the track leading up the hill the other side of the canal from the Admiral Nelson pub, a walk we hadn't done before. Very quickly we had climbed into open countryside, with views of Braunston you just don't get from the canal.
We got within sight of the A45 and the outskirts of Daventry, but there was a cold wind blowing and we turned round.
The route took us across an old bridge across the now non-existent Great Central Railway. You might just be able to make out the spire of Braunston Church on the horizon on the left.
We had stayed on this mooring as Jan had arranged for a Facebook contact to collect our now redundant mains fridge. This duly happened; we had to manhandle the fridge up onto the bridge by the pub to get it into her car. She seemed pleased with it; I hope it fits into her boat! She didn't pay anything for it as we just wanted to get rid of it.
Tomorrow we will have to decide which way to go. North Oxford or Warwick and Napton. We've sort of decided to do the Shroppie; it's just a question of which way.
1 comment:
I'm glad you managed to find someone who wanted your fridge. I tried every which way to give ours to somebody who might appreciate it, and found no takers at all. In the end we had to take it to fridge heaven at Stafford recycling centre.
Post a Comment