Fog in Crick Tunnel.

0 Locks, 7 Miles, 1 Tunnel and now moored at Bridge 8 Leicester line.
Total of 205 locks and 217 miles and 7 Tunnels since 5th Nov 2006

It was another fine but hazy start to the day. The haze unfortunately didn’t clear until lunchtime. While preparing breakfast I spotted a pair of Hare’s on the horizon of the field opposite. I went out onto the stern deck with my camera and they must have heard me as one laid flat on the ground and the other just sat there motionless. I took some photos but had to return to the galley as the kettle was boiling. I glanced up to where the Hare’s were only to see them disappearing into the distance at a great rate of knots. They must have sensed that I had gone and it was safe to move. Dumb animals, yeah right.
After pulling the pins we set off for Crick and along the way I spotted a swan sitting on her eggs and her mate spotted us and immediately went on the attack. He tried to attack my ankles so I moved and he then attacked the stern rope button until I threw some bread out to him which distracted him for all of 2 minutes when he came flying back at us again. I sped up to try and lose him but he just kept pace with us so I threw the last of the bread to him and finally got away from him. While this fracas was going on I noticed a Canadian goose sitting on her nest but didn’t get the opportunity for a photo.
At Crick we needed to get a few necessities’ from the coop store which is about 15 minute walk from the canal and then had lunch before going through the Crick tunnel (opened in 1814 and is 1528yds long).
As we entered the tunnel there was a bit of haze as several boats had passed through in the previous half hour but this cleared fairly quickly. I could see the southern portal although it was a bit murky but by about a third of the way through it became very foggy. The headlight could not penetrate the fog and I could see it swirling around the front of the boat. The southern portal just vanished. Dot thought it was diesel fumes but there was no smell to it and there was no blue haze that you would get from diesel. After about 5 minutes the fog evaporated and I could again see the other end. A weird phenomenon, that’s for real.
We are now moored just north of bridge 8 in a lovely rural area. As it was still reasonably early and the weather was good we pulled the rear hatch cover off along with the stainless steel strips it slides on to get rid of the rust and start preparing it for painting. I feel certain that I read somewhere that if you put steel and stainless steel together it creates a chemical reaction causing excessive rusting. Hopefully somebody can correct me if I’m wrong but I intend to put plenty of paint between them this time. Then hopefully I will get all this finished over the week-end.

Another photo of the ducklings - I think they look so cute.