Pebble prayers for Ukraine at St Margaret's Church, Crick

First thing this morning was the drippy Crick Tunnel, then we tied up so we could walk in to the village. The church was open; inside, on the altar, people had placed pebbles indicating that they had prayed or would pray for Ukraine.

When we got back to the boat after a walk round Crick we had lunch, then set off again on the winding route through the Northamptonshire countryside. The oilseed rape crops were smelling very strongly.

We stopped a couple of miles short of North Kilworth so that we could do the last bit tomorrow morning to ensure we had a full tank of hot water. I'm hoping we'll be able to connect a shoreline when we're in the air for blacking, as at Debdale Wharf, but just in case ... 

After tea we went for another walk, this time crossing into Leicestershire and taking the direct route from Bridge 40 to North Kilworth, then by the road to South Kilworth, then across the golf course back to the bridge and back to the boat. This pheasant was the most colourful bird we encountered.

And Jubilee looked nicely tucked into the side of the canal as dusk began to fall.

Old sunk boat at Buckby Top

We left the boat for a few days to go to a (95-year-old) friend's funeral, hence the lack of blogging. But I'm back now, and on the Leicester Section just south of Crick Tunnel. Son-in-law Ben dropped us at Norton Junction at lunchtime - a perfect opportunity to visit the New Inn for Sunday lunch. I had the half roast chicken: lots of meat. Good value (£12.50). Jan had the roast beef, also very good. On the 48 hour moorings opposite the pub is a sunk wooden boat. This wasn't here the last time we passed, so it can only recently have sunk. Was it being towed somewhere? It's not the best place for it to be.

At Watford Locks we had to wait for three boats to come down, then we made a reasonably quick ascent.

The two Calcutt hire boats we were following made a right hash of mooring; we hovered in the channel while they sorted themselves out. Now we have tied up ready for the final stint to North Kilworth tomorrow for blacking.

Woman rescued after falling in at Braunston

In the five miles/two hours of the combined Grand Union and Oxford Canals between Napton Junction and Braunston Turn we must have seen as many moving boats as in the whole of the previous seven days from Market Drayton. It was busy! At the turn where we turned right there was a boat turning right from the North Oxford and a boat turning left from the Braunston direction. Not that you can see them in my photo.

The towpath bridge over the entrance to Braunston Marina has sprouted ducks.

As we approached Braunston Bottom Lock we found ourselves behind a pair waiting to go up. But then an unfortunate episode took place.

The steerer of the butty was apparently trying to breast up to the motor when she fell in, still holding her stern line, between the two boats.

I pulled in to the bank for Jan to leap off with a buoyancy aid and run towards the boats. Before she got there a life ring had been found for the woman, who was a non-swimmer. She was not making any progress in her efforts to climb out of the water. Before I could get our rope ladder near, an aluminium ladder had been fetched from the boatyard and the woman was able to climb out.

She walked, bedraggled but apparently unhurt, to the boatyard to recover while the motor and butty were secured to the lock landing. When we were sure that we had done all we could to help, we went up the locks with another boat, Senior Moments, which had joined us during the half-hour or so of action.

You wouldn't want this in your back tyre

We had a bit of time before the first locks today, so I tackled the puncture. It didn't take long to find. This must be the longest foreign object I've had in a tyre: a two-inch nail. No wonder the tyre deflated so rapidly. Two patches later - over the entry and exit holes - the repair seems to be holding up. It lasted throughout the Stockton flight, anyway.

At a Boaters' Christian Fellowship event last year a member was disposing of a number of boating bits and pieces. I came away with a Dunton Double aluminium windlass. I usually eschew ally windlasses owing to the difficulty of retrieving them if they get dropped in the cut, but the addition of some hose clips should give me at least a fighting chance. 

The Dunton Double is a cunning combination of a large eye and a small eye windlass: when using on a small spindle - the more common type - the head of the windlass goes right over the spindle until it engages with the small eye. On a large, square-ended spindle such as on the paddle gear on the locks of the Grand Union between Calcutt and Birmingham, just the first part of the head fits over the spindle. It worked really well on all of yesterday's and today's locks, but I shall probably revert to my iron single small eye windlass from tomorrow for the Braunston locks etc.

I was surprised to see another CRT man checking lock gates today. He didn't seem to know the person I saw yesterday.

Ah - the HS2 crossing just west of Welsh Road Lock. It's like a small town is created wherever the new railway goes.

This temporary bridge over the canal looks like a conveyor bridge.

It ends oddly in an uplift.

At quite a few of today's locks I saw that the chains which usually dangle down the lock sides had been pulled up and left on the coping stones. I asked CRT about this (there was a maintenance team about) and they said that people do it to avoid the chains scratching their boats. It shouldn't be done, though. The chains should be left dangling in the lock as hauling them up creates a trip hazard.

At Lock 6, near the top of the Stockton flight, we came across the first non-working paddle of the whole trip so far. Not bad going, considering we have done something like 90 locks, with each lock having usually four paddles.

The house at Wigram's Turn (Napton Junction) still has its strange clouds on the wall.

And now some very poor photos of lapwings.

We know they were lapwings as Jan's Birdnet app on her phone identified them as such from their calls.

They make a most unusual electronic gadget-type sound of bleeping and whistling.

Apparently lapwings are the same as peewits.

We saw and heard the lapwings where we tied up betweren Lower Shuckburgh and Flecknoe on the Grand Union/Oxford Canal.

Greasy Hatton

We left Kingswood Junction at around 1000 having made use of the Elsan disposal facility. I didn't mention yesterday that we saw a steam train cross the bridge over the Lapworth Link. It was about 1640 and comprised four old coaches pulled by a black locomotive heading north. No photo, sadly.

Just before Shrewley Tunnel was the first widebeam we've seen for a while.

About three locks down the Hatton flight we caught up with Passing Shot. They waited for us and we progressed efficiently down the locks. Our passage was made even quicker by a volunteer lockie on a bicycle setting ahead for us. Result!

We immediately got into a routine: the boats would usually leave a lock side-by-side, move along the pound and enter the next lock still together. I would cycle between the locks and work the offside gates.

One paddle mechanism my side had been rather over-enthusiastically greased.

With three locks to go there was a loud bang underneath me as I cycled along. It was my back tyre getting a puncture. Oh well - better there than at the top of the flight. Time to complete the flight: 2 hours 45 minutes.

Our locking partners stopped at the bottom of the flight; we carried on down Cape Locks and to Leamington Spa. At Cape Bottom Lock a CRT man was checking the condition of the gates, making notes on an electronic device.

We tied up outside Lidl having stopped briefly at Tesco. We had a few drops of rain at about 1630: the first rain (such as it was) of the trip.

Why did I photograph this boat?

We left Water Eaton on 21st June, moving the boat north to Downhead Park. Ally picked us up to take us to Cranfield, where we borrowed Ben's car and drove home for gardening etc. We were back on the boat on 24th June; we moved on to Giffard Park on 26th. Ally, Josiah and Micah came with us to the pub there, where we waited a very long time for the food to arrive. Not good.

For some reason I took a photo of this boat.  Too long ago for me to remember why,

By Sunday 4th July we had moved to our favourite spot just north of The Galleon in Old Wolverton. Over the next few days we did a lot more driving: to Essex, to Bedfordshire, to Norfolk, to Essex again and back to the boat on the Bucks/Northants border.

On Thursday 15th July we moved further north, to Grafton Regis.  This is so I could cycle to Silverstone for the Grand Prix weekend, as I did three years ago.  Photos to follow.  For now, though, a quick update on our current location:  Fradley, just above Shadehouse Lock on the T&M.

Water (Eaton) under the bridge

Woe is me! For I have not been keeping up to date with this here blog. And the further I get behind, the more difficult it is to remember what I did and when and where. And I just get out of the habit of doing it, which makes it even harder when I return to it. But enough excuses - that's water under the bridge. Here are some photos and words.

First, back to the middle of June.  Only last month, but it feels like half a year ago.  Here is a group of members of the Boaters' Christian Fellowship.. We had gathered at Water Eaton on the Grand Union Canal in south Milton Keynes in preparation for a few days of supporting the nearby churches in their work with local people.
 

This was to be a Covid-curtailed "dry run" for next year, when the idea would be for there to be much more publicity and greater involvement with the local community. Similar events in past years have seen schools invited for tours of boats, free short boat trips for members of the public, cream teas and so on. This year all our meetings were outside and socially distanced.

We were, however, able to offer boat trips for families or "bubbles"; I went as crew to help move the boat being used for this from Marsworth Junction to Water Eaton.  Here is a different John steering Beacon down Soulbury Three Locks.
 

The weather at the start of the week was perfect: warm with wall-to-wall sunshine.

Some of the eight BCF boats put up banners and bunting.

Eric steered Beacon for some of the boat trips.

Fuel boats Bletchley and Bideford passed through.

It was great to see our friends Steve and Sue who came for a cup of tea on board Jubilee one afternoon. I have known Steve all my life. Literally. His mother and my mother were in the same maternity ward; Steve and I were born two days apart.

I will try to be a good boy and compress five or six weeks into a few days, continuing tomorrow. We are currently at Marston Junction on the Coventry Canal heading north.

Partial solar eclipse and an old lock at Cosgrove

I have some catching up to do as I have neglected this blog for quite a few days - oops! First, did you see the partial eclipse of the sun today? We had enough sunshine in Bletchley for me to project the sun onto a white card using a pair of cheap binoculars.

Nothing like as impressive as a total eclipse (which I was fortunate to see in France in 1999), but it's nice to see the moon nibbling away at the sun. There was no discernible darkening of the surroundings - that only happened when the odd cloud passed in front of the sun.

Now back to the business of catching up.

Thursday 3rd June 2021

Josiah was raring to go, having put on his lifejacket, so we set off immediately after breakfast.  The canal was covered in places with furry seeds.

 

I think they came from willow trees.

At Cosgrove we stopped to explore the horse tunnel under the canal and looked round the church.

And here's Josiah in the mouth of the horse tunnel.

Back on board, we continued down Cosgrove Lock, across the aqueduct and tied up just before the Galleon.  Ally came to collect Josiah leaving us to have a quiet evening on our own.  We walked through the Ouse Valley Park to the Iron Trunk Aqueduct over the Great Ouse.  The footpaths here, as in many parts of Milton Keynes, are of very high quality being smooth and wheelchair-friendly.  It felt odd walking on these paths through fields of grazing cattle.

There are some nice photos to be had of the aqueduct leaping over the river.  But here are mine.

Having walked through the horse tunnel immediately to the south of the aqueduct we looked for evidence of the former locks which led down to a crossing of the Great Ouse on the level. Here's what we found: a gate and a lock chamber, still in remarkably good condition given the length of time since it was last used. The current iron trunk aqueduct was opened in 1811 and I can't imagine anyone wanting to use slow and wasteful locks when they could go straight across, so perhaps the old locks fell into disuse from then. (I suppose they might have been used if the aqueduct was closed for maintenance.)

Jan noticed a strange phenomenon in the sky while we were at the lock. I don't think I've seen a red rainbow before.

The sun was setting and turning deep red, hence the apparent lack of other colours in the rainbow.

After looking at the sunset over the aqueduct we returned to the boat.