The end of the summer cruise

Yesterday we moved into Crick marina for our winter mooring.  We have been along the top pound between Foxton and Watford for the last week, cruising on the better days.  John has been through Crick tunnel 4 times over the last few days (by choice!)

Since arriving in the marina, we have, washed, polished and touched up the war wounds of 5 months of cruising, as we have only touched up the paint a couple of times whilst we have been out on the cut.  We now have a very shiny boat!!  (Just like she should be in a marina!) and we have very sore and aching limbs. 

We still have some painting to complete and then we will start packing up for our return home.  If the weather is ok over the next couple of months we may try to get out for a weekend or two before winterising.  

Entrance to Crick tunnel

Exiting the tunnel, Ali was trying to get photos of the bats, but failed miserably

The moon has been fabulous the last few days

Shiny boat!

Foggy morning

We are now debating our plans for next year, north or south, or perhaps east?  Lets just hope for some lovely weather like we have had this year, it makes canal life so much better!

We have completed 965 miles, 704 locks, 44 swing & 18 lift bridges and 24747 yards of tunnel, since leaving Crick at the end of April.  We have met old friends, made new friends and had many a chat with fellow boaters of all persuasions.  The camaraderie of the cut certainly enhances the experience.

Thanks for reading our musings we may post an occasional update over the winter, but we will be back blogging in the spring all being well!

Ali & John

Busy doing.......Nothing!

Aware of the dire forecast for today, we decided to sit tight. This is a lovely rural mooring, sheltered from the wind and so no hardship.

The day dawned better than than forecast, but as the morning progressed, the decision to stay put was justified. It has rained and rained, not particularly heavy, but miserable to travel in and cold. Now we had more than our share of travelling in the wet last year and as we are coming to the end of the 2013 cruise, we are avoiding getting wet where possible.

So we have for the first time this year I think, fired up the Refleks stove, charged up the battery bank and remained cosy and warm whilst braver (but looking decidedly miserable) souls have cruised past. I have hammered the Kindle whilst Ali has baked. Hard life!

When we moored near Mercia we took the opportunity to pop into Midland chandlers. We have had a sat dish since launch and whilst this is good, it relies on line of sight, not always possible on the inland waterways. Anyway, we bought a Maxview Omnimax at the chandlers with an additional magnetic base. Untill we reached Market Harborough, this remained in the box, but having time to play whilst there I assembled it and connected it up via the signal booster and bingo, good Tv reception without fiddling with a dish on the roof. Now at our rural mooring we have a multitude of telly and radio channels, so looking like a good buy at the moment, fingers crossed! Tuesday evening is a must watch night, Great British bake off for Ali, New Trick's for me.

So No pictures tonight. Tomorrow we head towards our ultimate destination, Crick. Possibly!!

Possibly the last locks of the year?

We have done a 'Manley' the last few days, staying in Market Harborough basin, for two reasons, we like it and the weather forecast for the weekend especially Sunday was appalling, so we thought we would sit it out hooked up to power!  We like Market Harborough and on Friday I met my sister and we had a good look around the shops, Saturday, John & I wandered down, had some lunch and wandered back, it is traditional market town and somehow seems to avoid the recession.

Market Harborough basin

Yesterday the wind was really bad and we felt really sorry for the hire boats trying to return to the basin.  We had to help a couple of them in as they were really struggling, not surprisingly, one chap managed to get the boat parallel to one side of the basin and then to the opposite side, neither of which was where he needed to be, eventually he was within aiming distance and managed to get the stern lined up and reversed, the pontoons are only short and the bow was blown away from the pontoon, we managed to get his centre rope and pull him in and then tie the bow to the next boat, to hold them together, there were three boats tied together and the bows were definitely blowing in the wind!  We spent the evening with Jane & Paul and due to nowhere being open for food on a Sunday evening in Market Harborough (well no where we fancied) we went to Foxton Locks Inn.  

A bit of floating weed, only half the canal width

This morning was still windy but not as bad so we decided to make a move.  We made our way back to Foxton, stopping at the village shop on the way.  We moored in the basin, there were three boats already waiting so I walked up to find the lock keeper.  The news wasn't great, unannounced a team had turned up to jet wash the lock gates, so no-one was going anywhere, the team had already been doing the gates for a couple of hours and had only done two locks.  There were boats waiting at the top and bottom, however once the flight was open we would go up, so we would be fourth.  The lock keepers said that they hoped to have us moving by about 4pm, it was 1:30!  However, as I was chatting to the lock keeper, one of the other lock keepers said he had persuaded the jet washers to go back up the locks, so the flight could be re-opened, so we didn't have to wait that long, we were off up the locks just after 2:00.  No problems with the locks, the boat in front wasn't that quick so I had to keep waiting to fill the lock as they were still in the one above.  We decided to cruise to Welford junction, the wind was getting worse and we had a couple of rain showers but nothing much.  When we got to Welford we couldn't get in on the mooring rings as the three boats moored couldn't have been spaced more awkwardly, not enough room between any of them for us, why can't folks share mooring rings, another two boats could have got in, but no, lets spread out attitude!  We couldn't be bothered to get them to move up, it was too windy to be faffing about and we know there are other places so we kept going and have moored just south of bridge 38, obviously someone's favourite mooring as there is a bird table in the hedge. 

Our mooring tonight

14 miles, 10 locks, Husbands Bosworth Tunnel 1166 yards