NB Triskaideka: Goodbye Mr Crick

Thursday 12 April 2012

Goodbye Mr Crick

Another dry dawn, not that we saw it, just for once John slept in this morning until 8am. We were soon up and almost ready, when there was a knock on the window. Dave (NB Lady Esther) announced he was off - down Crick tunnel to beat any oncoming boats. Not had a lot of luck in tunnels has Dave!

We had breakfast, reversed a short distance so we could go into Crick Marina for diesel and gas, and then set off towards the Watford flight, knowing we would have to queue. No-one in the tunnel (see Dave you don’t have to get up so early), we booked in with the lock keeper at Watford at 10:55 and were sixth in the queue, we were told it was five up and down but the lock keeper said we could come down with the others and not wait until the next batch or even possibly tomorrow. We had to wait for five boats coming up so I decided to make a cake, I managed to make it and bake it (cooking the two layers separately) before we went down. We set off down the locks about 1pm. As usual the lock keepers were helpful and were keeping the movement of boats flowing smoothly, there was lots of help with the last two locks as there were about seven or eight boats waiting to go up.

We continued along to Norton Junction where Dave & Angie had moored leaving rather a large gap between them and the next boat, so that with a bit of shuffling we managed to get in, although it messed Dave’s satalite tv signal up as our pram hood became an obstruction, soon resolved though. Ali has met Del & Al from Derwent 6 (fellow bloggers) and we are all decamping to the pub later.

Weather wise it has been a better day than we thought, with just one shower and it’s a lovely evening, blue skies and dappled sunlight reflecting through the portholes onto the ceiling of the boat, although its getting a little chilly, so we have lit the stove.

See the fear (Ali steering in the tunnel)