Easter Cruise - Spring 2024 Week 6

 Monday 1st April - Braunston

We have spent another day in Braunston.  There was some very heavy rain in the early hours of the morning and unfortunately the window has continued to leak despite the work we have already done on it.  So we have decided to enlist the services of an engineer who will remove the window, reseal it with special tape and replace the window.

We took a walk up to Braunston Marina hoping that they might be able to help, but they weren’t very hopeful as they were well booked up.  We did find nbRaymond moored in the arm with lots of information on the side of the boat.

She certainly looked a very sorry state in1997 and all credit must go to the volunteers who work tirelessly to restore and maintain her as she is today.

The boat she is now paired with, nbNutfield, is currently in dry dock having some work done.  We stopped at the Gongoozler’s Rest Cafe and had a late breakfast, a delicious bacon sandwich, and discussed our options for sorting out the window.  We have decided to go with an engineer who will come out to the boat and repair the window for us.  That way we can continue cruising at our very gentle pace.  

Dave took this from the back of the boat, two boats, neither giving way and squeezing under the bridge at the same time, don’t think I would be happy to do that!  

Tuesday 2nd April - Braunston

Today we decided to move on and went as far as the water point to fill up with water.  The tap was extremely slow and having waited ages for the boat ahead of us to finish it then took ages for our tank to fill. 

The sign states that you can only moor for 30mins to fill up with water!

In the meantime I went and bought Toby a new dog lead and just happened to call into the office to see if there was any chance they could do our window sooner than next Monday.  I was amazed to hear that they could do it tomorrow, so we moved up to just beyond the marina and moored again for the night.

Dave went for a walk around the village with Toby whilst I cleaned through the boat.  These are some of the iconic buildings in the village and by the canal.

Andy came to see the window in the afternoon and said we could have a space in the wet dock tomorrow morning and he would call round at 8.30 to let us know whether we had to go in backwards or forwards.

0.5 miles, 7mins, 0 locks.

Wednesday 3rd April - Braunston 

An early start today as we are moving the boat into the wet dock to have the window fixed.

Andy arrived at 8.30 and said he had cleared a space in the wet dock and we needed to reverse the boat down the arm into place.  Here is Ella moored waiting to have the window taken out, repaired and then replaced.

This is the Tradline shop where we have bought our new tri-coloured ropes from, a lovely shop with everything you could possibly want to do with ropes and fenders.

Here is the window space, the window has gone to have new sealant tape attached and left to adhere securely.  Once the window had been successfully replaced we were able to take the boat back out onto the cut and moor up again just past the Marina Arm.  

Toby and I went for a walk and I found many of these catkins which had been knocked off the trees because of the heavy rain and strong winds.  These are Aspen catkins the male trees produce silky brown catkins before the leaves appear and green catkins develop on female trees. Once fertilised by the wind-blown pollen, they turn into fluffy white seeds which are released in late April and May.

Thursday 4th April - Braunston to Norton Junction

Made an early start this morning and were lucky enough to buddy up with another boat to go through the wide locks.  We were also lucky to have the help of two Volunteer Lock Keepers.

Nicola and Mark prepared the lock ahead of us so we went up very smoothly indeed.  Mark is a trainee and is working under the supervision of Nicola.  Many thanks to them both for all their help.

It did become very busy with boats behind us and many boats coming towards us, but it all went very smoothly.  We then went through the Braunston Tunnel, met one other boat coming towards us but all very straight forward.  

We moored just before Norton Junction, looking out across open fields.  The footpaths here are still very muddy, so we had to put Toby into his fluorescent onesie!

Toby and I walked down along the Grand Union to the next set of locks and found this rather sad looking wooden hull boat sunk on a visitor mooring.  The locks were busy with boats waiting to come up and boats going down.  We are not going this way, but instead we shall turn left at Norton Junction and head towards Leicester on the Leicester Line.

4.5 miles, 2hr 30mins, 6 locks, 1 tunnel

Friday 5th April - Norton Junction to Crick Wharf

A lovely sunny day, so we decided to move the boat to Crick.  We knew the wind was going to get up again in the afternoon so we made a reasonably early start.  At Norton Junction we turned left onto the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal.

This is one of many marinas on this stretch of the canal.  We took this photo to remind us that access to water, diesel and waste disposal is very easy here.  Very important in windy conditions!

We got to the bottom of the Watford Locks and we had to wait until we had informed the lock keepers that we wanted to go up the flight of locks.  There are 7 locks altogether, 2 on their own, a staircase of 4 and a single at the top.  Dave was told that we could go up the first 2 locks and then wait whilst they were seeing a boat down through the staircase.

This is the boat coming down the staircase.  The locks were built to carry narrowboats, and the system was opened in 1814. The locks are hemmed in by the Roman Watling Street (now the A5 road), the M1 motorway, and the West Coast Main Line railway, which all fit through the narrow Watford Gap, between two hill systems. 

Looking back down the staircase locks, it is quite exposed and extremely windy as we ascended the locks.  Once we were out the top we pulled over to top up with water and dispose of any rubbish.  By the time we set off again, the wind was quite vicious and we decided to get as far as Crick and pull over in a sheltered spot.

Passage through Crick Tunnel was easy with no boats coming towards us and once out we found a spot where it wasn’t too muddy and pulled over for the night.  Unfortunately, it was in a cutting which meant that our WiFi signal was non-existent, so a quiet evening listening to music and playing games.

5 miles, 3hr 36mins, 7 locks, 1 tunnel

Saturday 6th April - Crick Wharf to Skew Bridge, Yelvertoft 

A lovely start to the day so we set off for a short cruise to Yelvertoft.  We had a bad night with Toby, he didn't settle at all and spent most of the night padding around the boat and softly whimpering.  Twice we took him out, 3am and 5am, thinking he may need the toilet but to no avail.  We think he was spooked by something in the cutting, so another good reason to move on!

This is Crick Hill which we remember climbing last time we were moored here.  We haven’t attempted it this time as it is still so muddy everywhere.

A detour around this heavily ladened tree which is about to collapse into the canal.  With all the strong winds and heavy rain there will be a number of trees down around the network. 

We got to Skew Bridge and moored soon after and just before the water point. The wind began to get a lot stronger and we decided to call it a day and stay put for the rest of the day.

We went for a walk up into Yelvertoft and found the local church, all the notices advertised that the church was open and welcomed visitors but I was really disappointed to find that it was locked!  We also went to Squ!sito, a butcher and deli, and bought a homemade aubergine parmigiana for our supper.  We also gave him a short list of essentials he could pick up from Waitrose for us and we can go back tomorrow to collect them.  Very handy service.

2.25 miles, 1hr 6min, 0 locks

Sunday 7th April - Yelvertoft

We decided to stay another day here as the wind is even stronger than yesterday and we really don’t fancy cruising in it.

Early morning across the open fields just up from our mooring, happy to report Toby was absolutely fine last night and slept like a log all through the night!

We went for a walk back along the canal to Bridge 17 and picked up a Bridleway that took us back into Yelvertoft.  Toby way ahead of us, looking back as if to say ‘What’s keeping you?’

As we approached this tree it suddenly dropped down onto the towpath in front of us, a large gust of wind brought it down in front of our eyes!

The straight bridleway all the way into Yelvertoft, again Toby way ahead waiting patiently for us to catch up.  We really enjoyed this walk as there was very little mud under foot, made a huge difference.

A lovely village sign featuring the church and a boat coming under Skew Bridge.

Alex from Squ!sito, with our shopping from Waitrose, a delightful service very much appreciated.  Well worth a visit if you are ever down this way.