It was a lovely bright day yesterday and as two boats were
moving into the first lock in front of me I decided I may as well move forward
to the water point and top up while waiting for the lock to clear. Another boat
appeared and they also went through the lock before I was finished, I was
pleasantly surprised that two of the crew seeing me finishing up had waited and
they locked me through, the ‘skipper’ explaining that he had spoke to his boat
crew on their walkie talkie and they would wait for me at the next lock so we
could go down the rest of the locks together, it was all very organised or so
we thought.
As I left the first of the 7 Buckby locks I found I was
following a different boat, presumably they had just moved off and were now
between me and the well meaning fully crewed boat, arriving at the next lock
things got a bit confused with instructions flying about and I had no idea what
was happening, both gates were opened and the ‘interloper’ moved into the lock,
the crewed boat did not look as though it was going in so in the end I went in
with the ‘interloper’ whether that was the plan or not, and from then on shared the remaining locks with the
couple on N.B. Cavalier.
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| Following the surprise boat after the first lock |
It was a pleasant descent the seven locks dropping us down
62’ 10” and with hubby on the tiller and his wife working the locks, with as
much assistance from me as she would allow, we were fairly quickly going
through the bottom lock.
They were heading for Blisworth Marina for the winter and
stopped after the lock to visit the chandlers at Whilton Marina so having said
goodbyes I was on my own for the lockless run to my intended mooring.
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| Whilton Marina, I had traveled here by car in my search for a boat. |
It was really quite pleasant conditions as I cruised along
occasionally clearly the prop of leaves with a quick burst of reverse gear, an autumn
pastime for boaters.
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| Just another one that caught my eye. |
All along this section of the canal you are accompanied by the
M1 motorway, sometimes visible sometimes not, but always heard.
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| Busy motorway as usual |
Looking at this very lovely scene you wouldn’t know the
motorway is about 150 yards on my left and the drivers using it are certainly
not aware of my presence.
Passing the very often photographed old man reminded me of my
journey up this canal last year, not much has changed, he certainly hasn’t
moved :-)
This one isn’t going far at the moment.
Arriving at my intended stop at Weedon Bec I took a mooring
on the offside which is handy for the shops, I had stopped here before so was
pleased to find a space where I wanted to be. I will stay here for the weekend
and maybe move on Monday.
Current mooring pics taken from the opposite end of the boat,
the bow, for a change!
Totals this post : 5 miles : 7 locks
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