One species of small furry animal*

Hello again! We've been in a signal desert, or so it seems, for days. Now we have a connection of sorts I shall try to upload a post and provide an update on where we are, where we've been and what we've been doing.

We are now in Braunston ... but I shall rewind to last Sunday. We drove back to North Kilworth on the Leicester Line and unloaded from the car to the boat. Jan spotted something small moving in the grass on the towpath. Can you see it?

Here it is. It was no more than an inch and a half long, plus the tail of a similar length.

The question is ... what is it?

I wondered if it was injured as it didn't scarper, just hung around for me to use my camera at will.

With our things back on board we set off for Foxton. We tied up immediately above the locks ready for a swift descent when the locks opened the next morning.

The locks had been desecrated by CRT. At the top lock nasty blue banners were wrapped round both bottom balance beams and the top balance beam - obscuring the lock number - with the exhortation to Save Water.

As a guide as to how to achieve this, written below was Close the gates, Lower the paddles. Well, dur!

We encountered the same official vandalism today at Watford Locks. I suppose we have to be grateful that they didn't suggest sharing the narrow locks. I really, really hope this blue rash isn't spreading all over the system.

So, where was I? Ah yes, Foxton. On Monday we had to wait for four boats to come up the flight before being allowed down; then we carried on in the rain to Market Harborough, one of our favourite towns. We stayed there for our 48 hour allowance, returning to Foxton on Wednesday. It rained.

On Thursday we were in the first batch of boats up the locks and continued - in the rain - to North Kilworth where we stopped for tea. Then I did a spot of car/bike shuffling, driving to Pailton and cycling the 11 miles back. To get away from the road we moved on to Welford Junction where we tied up for the night.

This brings us to yesterday: Welford Junction to Crick. In the rain. (Well, I suppose it wasn't raining all the time.) And today: Crick to Braunston. And ... it didn't rain much - hooray! Yes, I know the reservoirs need it, but it does get a bit tiresome when it rains during the day.

We tied up just below the Admiral Nelson. Jan walked in to Braunston to buy some milk and saw Sarah with Chertsey. When she told me I nipped along to say hello, and was invited in to Chertsey's luxurious hold and plied with ale. Thanks Sarah and Jim, good to see you both.

I have taken few photos recently. I don't like getting my camera wet.

*no cave, no pict

It's a mug's game

We still have plenty of cloth bags from last year's Crick Show, so we didn't collect any more this time. One freebie I did pick up, though, was a rather nice mug from the Environment Agency's Anglian Waterways stall.

The mug features a topographical map of the Anglian waterways, many of which we covered last year. It's attractively done in the style of a London Underground map.

Unfortunately ... there are several mistakes. Not necessarily in the layout, although some of the Middle Level navigations seem to be missing, but in the spelling.

The Cambridgeshire Lodes, for example.

Oops!

And the River Wissey has gained an extra "e".

It's a pity the EA doesn't seem to know their partner navigation authority is the Canal & River Trust.

I wasn't going to mention the missing apostrophe in King's Lynn, but it looks like I just have. Oh dear.

Sorry to be such a nit-picker! I'm sure it will hold a portion of tea perfectly well.

Crick cracked

Last night I was too tired to blog, so here's a double dose. I will keep it short, though.

Today the rain clouds threatened, but didn't really produce much more than two or three very short showers. Nothing to deter the crowds.

Yesterday the Boaters' Christian Fellowship held a service in the Entertainment Marquee, otherwise known as the beer tent. Mark Chester, the head of the Waterways Chaplains, gave the talk: a cautionary tale about Little Jimmy.

About 60 people came to the service.

The BCF stand was busy most of the time, with people enquiring about us and entering our "find the duck" competition. With plenty of BCF members willing to run the stand in one hour shifts the task was not too onerous. Many stands had just two people for the whole extended weekend - I'm thinking of, for example, Paul and Christine of Waterway Routes and Mark and Catherine of the Cut Glass Gallery - they must be completely shattered.

On my way back from taking stuff to the boat I saw Kathryn steering Sculptor back towards Stoke Bruerne.

Beer beats band

Today was the first day when the majority of the public were admitted to the Crick Boat Show (a small number had been allowed in on a "preview" day yesterday). The weather was perfect, with plenty of warm sunshine. In the afternoon there were a few spots of rain, but nothing to send people scurrying to cover.

Raymond, Nutfield and Sculptor

The BCF stand, sharing space with the Waterways Chaplains, was busy, with many people stopping to talk.

In the evening I returned to the site to see the main band of the night: Los Pacaminos. While queueing for the bar, which took at least 20 minutes, the band started up.

I enjoyed the ale (Delapré Dark Mild) much more than the music; when I had finished the drink I walked the mile back to the boat.

As I came out of the post office with my newspaper Adrian from Briar Rose was walking along carrying shopping bags, so we talked for a while. Later I saw and waved to Adam at the site, but he was talking to someone so I didn't stop. Another well-known (ex-) blogger I talked to was Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons.

Puncture count: five so far

We spent much of the day helping to set up the BCF stand in the marquee at the Crick Boat Show, ready for the main influx of visitors tomorrow, Sunday and Monday. Robert helped me put up the banners and bunting, while Elaine, Sandra, Margaret and Jan sorted out the table and other stuff.

One of the show staff came up with a step ladder - it would have been almost impossible without it.

The people who are usually opposite us, Caldwell Windows, were miffed that they have been moved to the next position.

Somehow the BCF leaflets small display stand was missing, so I went back to the boat and spent 2.5 hours making one.

Not terribly elegant, but it will have to do.

I bumped into Andrew Denny and chatted to him briefly; later, Indigo Dream came past with Richard steering. He stopped for a quick chat; we invited him to join us for tea but he couldn't get close enough to the bank near where we were so he went on. After tea Catherine and Mark joined us for drinks. They run the Stained Glass Gallery stand in the craft marquee.

Oh - there's something else to report. I mended four punctures today. All in the rear wheel. One was from last night, but I picked up the other three from the towpath today. I hope all the other towpath cyclists appreciate my clearing all the thorns for them.

Crick's Indian restaurant: excellent

We did no boating today, but I retightened the mooring ropes every now and again. We are now as close to the bank as I think we'll get. Photo tomorrow if I remember.

I cleaned the top of the boat with a microfibre cloth and propped up the solar panels with soup tins to face approximately south as we'll be here for a few days. The boat is now covered in hawthorn blossom again - it's that time of year.

Boats are continuing to arrive for the boat show; May Contain Nuts came in in front of us. Nigel has an interesting boat, with the engine not at the back, or even amidships, but at the bow, powering a hydraulic pump. Everything is hydraulic drive: main propulsion plus both bow and stern thrusters. It doesn't seem to be very efficient. I said we use about 1.25 litres per hour of engine running; Nigel said his consumption is about three times as much. Oo-er.

Walking to the marina for a cup of tea with Robert and Margaret on Blue Iris took an age as we stopped and chatted to loads of people on the towpath.

I put down my mug to take this photo of a yellow biplane overflying the marina and show site.

In the evening, as promised, we went to the Indian Lodge restaurant in Crick. We were joined by Margaret and Robert and had a very good meal. We ate quite early at 6pm, and found we were the only diners. Perhaps it gets busier later in the evening - I hope so, as it would be a real shame if it doesn't last. The restaurant is attached to the Royal Oak pub, which means that you can have a proper ale with your food. The menu was refreshingly short; I had lamb chilli garlic for the main course. The meat was tender and tasty. Before that I had a spicy chilli chicken starter which I won't have again. The menu described it as Indo-Chinese, which should have been sufficient warning. It was more Chinese than Indian - very nice if you like Chinese food, I'm sure. Overall, though, it was a good experience; I can see us going back there before too long.

When we left I found my bike had another puncture, in the back wheel this time, so I had to push it back to the boat. A job for the morning.

As we walked back the sun was setting over the canal.

Tomorrow we'll be helping to set up the BCF stand in what used to be called the Kingfisher Marquee (Boating Marquee?), so there'll be quite a buzz around the place as the other exhibitors set up their stalls.

Discovering something new and potentially hot in Crick

We made a reasonably early start from Weedon today, being under way by 0830. I have to confess it was a bit of a relief to get away from the Virgin trains thundering by on the West Coast Main Line. Don't get me wrong, I like trains as much as the next man, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. We had tied up on the piling just south of Weedon Bridge 24 with the railway just a matter of yards the other side of the canal.

At Buckby Top we briefly saw Jan and Bob in their Waterways Chaplains uniforms while we topped up with water. Then we pushed on up the Leicester Section to the bottom of Watford Locks.

Just before reaching the locks, as expected, we passed Dodona on its usual mooring. Now it sports a For Sale sign.

£35,000 "job lot", whatever that means.

We were the fourth boat in the queue at the bottom, so we thought we'd be allowed up behind the first three, but were told we'd have to wait as there were two boats at the top waiting to come down. So we had lunch.

The two boats turned into four. Hmm.

Jubilee at the top of Watford Staircase

After a passage through an increasingly drippy Crick Tunnel we ticked over past all the boats which have already arrived for the Crick Boat Show and tied up in the shallows south of Bridge 15. The bow is close enough to solid ground, but the stern is sticking out a bit. The price we pay for not paying the price, if you see what I mean.

We walked in to the village after tea and discovered ... an Indian restaurant! It's attached to the Royal Oak pub. We got a menu and will probably eat there - for research purposes, of course - tomorrow.

Historic boats and house moving

Is it really almost a week since the Crick Show? Time behaved strangely last week. I'll get on to that in a bit. First, while we were still at our mooring on the piling just south of the winding hole, Nutfield and Raymond came by.

For quite a while after they had passed I could hear Nutfield's engine as it rounded the long bend to Yelvertoft.

On the Tuesday after the show we drove to Wolverton to help daughter Ally, son-in-law Ben and grandson Josiah move house. This was one vanful, with the family and their removal man, on Wednesday, moving day.

With the van gone to the new house Ben and Josiah drove away from their old house for the last time. Theirs was the one with the ladder outside.

And here's the new house, a dozen miles away in Cranfield. Sadly from our point of view it's not close to the canal, but it's a lovely house and they are very pleased to be in it at last.

The break from boaty things to help with the move was why the time went strangely. Now we're back on board Jubilee.

Yesterday afternoon we were invited to fellow BCFers (and Waterways Chaplains) Bob and Jan on The Barocha for tea and cake; this morning, after the 0945 service in St. Margaret's Church, we returned the invitation and shared coffee and biscuits. Now we have moved south through Crick Tunnel and tied up between the railway bridge and Bridge 9. And there's a decent mobile data signal at last.

Crick Boat Show 2018

We were at the Crick Boat Show primarily to help at the Boaters' Christian Fellowship stand over the long weekend. I always enjoy walking round the trade stands and meeting friends. On the Sunday the BCF holds a service in the entertainments marquee, popularly known as the beer tent.

After a time of worship led by Tim, his wife Tracey spoke on the question "Do you know where you are going?"

The service was well attended, with numbers estimated at about 100.

The BCF stand was in the usual place in the corner of the largest marquee and attracted a steady stream of visitors.

The weather was remarkably kind, with plenty of warm sunshine over the entire three days. The sky got very dark at about 5pm on Sunday, but the rain held off until the show had closed for the day.

I got wet helping to secure a boat which had come adrift. No, I didn't fall in: the expected deluge of rain came.

In the evening John and Jane came for a meal on Jubilee, then the four of us returned to the show site for the Abba tribute band Abba Revival.

For once, a band playing songs I mostly knew!

Aldgate and Angel

While we were having breakfast it became apparent that we weren't really in the best place. Boats had started to be moved out of the ABNB basin back into the main Crick Marina; last night we had taken a spot recently vacated by a boat on a reserved mooring for the boat show. This was immediately opposite the ABNB basin. We very quickly moved - to a space just big enough a bit further on. While we were considering leaving Crick to return to Braunston we noticed a couple walking along the towpath and pausing outside our boat. We got talking to them and invited them to have a look round the boat. Over coffee we learnt that Margaret and Bob were caravanners who had come to a nearby site for a "retired caravanners" rally. (I think that's for retired people who caravan, rather than people who have retired from caravanning.) They had known about the boat show but had been put off by the admission charge, not realising that there was much more than just boaty stuff. They hadn't been on a narrowboat before so were pleased to have the opportunity we gave them. When they had gone we walked to the Co-op and bought a few more provisions.

The sound of an older engine heralded the arrival of Nick Wolfe on Aldgate towing Angel.

I took these rather dark photos in the gloom of the tunnel cutting.

This shows the cross straps used to connect motor and butty ...

... and here's another view.

As the butty entered Crick Tunnel the steerer was having difficulty keeping it in line with the motor; there was a bit of scraping along the left side. Oops!

We remembered we hadn't filled in the Crick Marina competition entry form, so we thought of a slogan, wrote it down; and then I walked to the office and posted it through their letterbox. Then it was time to leave Crick, five days after arriving, and so we set off through the tunnel. We tied up at the first piling we came to, in the company of a handful of other boats, and lit the fire. The weather had turned cold and windy; it rained later in the evening.

Now an earlier bedtime is called for - earlier than the past few nights, that is.

Lots of money spent at Crick

The last day of the 2016 Crick Boat Show. It's been very good in terms of the number of people met for the first time and others met up with again. The BCF/Waterways Chaplains stand (we shared the space) was busy throughout. Jan and I weren't on the stand all the time; other Boaters' Christian Fellowship members took their turn. Wandering round the site (again) I saw "James Brindley" still talking about his part in the revolutionary transport system to carry goods by boat on inland waterways.

In the Waterways World "VIP" marquee/vintage tea room two sisters going under the name of "My Favourite Things" started to perform while we had coffee/hot chocolate (to try to warm up). They sang old songs to a backing track with synchronised movements.

They were rather good.

Here is the BCF stand in action - that's Jan partially hidden by someone finding out about us.

I don't know if this is what other people do, but I find I think of something I need at Crick, then don't actually buy it until the very last minute. We had been about to buy a 12V fridge with an ice box, but decided this morning that we would go for a larder fridge instead. Our present mains fridge is that type, i.e. without a freezer compartment.

We plumped for the Shoreline RL5010W, which claims to use an average of 0.8Ah per hour, i.e. 0.8A. That's if you never open the door! I committed to the purchase at 1600, just one hour before the show closed. After asking Crick Marina if we could pick the fridge up from the wharfside the Shoreline man wheeled the fridge to the service point, then I went to get the boat and pick it up. I managed to get it onto the well deck on my own, then I moved the boat to a more convenient mooring. I was itching to connect it up and see how it performed, so I emptied the contents of the old fridge into cool bag/other bags and with Jan's help got it relatively out of the way. Manoeuvering the new fridge into the galley went without too much difficulty, then all I had to do was switch it on.

Well, no, actually. I discovered that, although nice fat cables had been left for a 12V fridge, they weren't long enough. I didn't have anything of the right size, so I paralleled up a few pieces of mains cable and used "chocolate blocks" to join it all up. The extra bit added in is only a couple of feet so it won't introduce any significant voltage drop. And it works! The compressor is nice and quiet, the food is all in, and the inverter doesn't have to be on - hooray!

Much of the wiring up was done while entertaining Mark Andy and Vicky from Selwyn who popped in for a post prandial drink and chat after their meal in The Moorings.

The inverter is actually on at the moment to keep the phone charged so I can write this. The fridge cabling was previously being used to feed a small 200W inverter which will charge phones etc; now I will have to connect it somewhere else.

So that was one big chunk of money; the other major expense was a new set of batteries. I am so convinced that the old set - only 13 months old - is on its last legs that I have ordered four more sealed lead acid batteries from Midland Chandlers at the show price of £70 each. Before installing them I have to do something permanent about regulating the alternator. Although it now works, and charges up the batteries, it allows the voltage to rise to 14.7V which is not good for sealed lead acids. They prefer no more than 14.4V so as to avoid gassing. I believe the existing batteries have suffered because they were never getting fully charged, owing to the previous alternator dying and the dubious way the Sterling ABC was installed, but I don't want the new batteries to suffer from overcharging. A grabbed conversation with Mark Langley, Waterways World's technical editor, pointed me towards an Adverc external regulator, so I shall have to look into that.

For now, though, it's time to recharge my own batteries and get some sleep.

edited to correct a name and remove typos

Jan broadcasts to Northamptonshire, church in the beer tent and looking at a 12V fridge

This morning started early for us as we wanted to listen to BBC Radio Northampton to hear the item on the Boaters' Christian Fellowship at the Crick Boat Show. It was to be in their Sunday programme some time between 0600 and 0900. We switched on at 0615 and heard the item at about 0710. Jan had been interviewed yesterday, along with Mark Chester, the lead Waterways Chaplain. The package included clips from Mark and Jan explaining what their respective organisations do. After the item was broadcast the programme plugged the BCF service in the beer tent which was happening at about 1010. Martin Heath, the presenter, asked listeners to contact the programme with suggestions for hymns or worship songs suited to a church service in a beer tent at a boat show. One idea was "'Ail to the Lord's annointed", which worked well on the radio.

Mark Chester spoke at the service.

I managed to remember to take one or two photos at the show today. The weather was a lot cooler than yesterday; I kept my fleece on all day and didn't wear my sunglasses until late afternoon.

We had another good meal at the Wheatsheaf, then Jan went to the boat and I returned to the beer tent, this time for a Tom Robinson gig.

I enjoyed this much more than last night's Blondied. The sound overall was better and not as deafening.

Afterwards I talked to Del and Al of Derwent6 and Sian of Mochyn Du.

Last day of the show tomorrow. We might buy a 12V fridge to replace the 230V one. It still works fine, but it means having the inverter on the whole time; the combination being quite a drain on the poor old batteries. We looked at a Lec Inlander in Midland Chandlers on what seems a good deal. Anyone want a perfectly good mains fridge (no icebox)?