Thursday 30 August 2007

All steamed up.

9 Locks, 11 Miles. Now moored at Braunston top lock.
607 locks, 807 miles, 22 Tunnels, 37 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006

On Wednesday morning it was goodbye to Rugby for this year as we set off for Braunston. We will be back here in February for our 6 monthly doctor’s appointment.

Along the way we passed n/b President and butty Kildare. President was in fine form with a good head of smoke being emitted from the chimney. It’s nice to see the pair working after reading so much about them in the magazines.

There were still a lot of boats heading north again today and we met one of them in a blind bridge hole. Luckily I blasted my horn as I approached and he reciprocated so I became aware of his presence. With a quick change into reverse I was able to back off in time as he was already in the bridge hole.

Bridge 80 on the Oxford canal just North of Braunston is really looking the worse for wear with a huge chunk of brick work missing.

which we found in a BW work boat just further down the canal. This will be a major repair job.

Upon arrival at Braunston we watered up and went up through the first 2 locks where we moored so that we could visit Braunston bottom lock chandlery who stock Masons paint. We later wandered up to the top lock to see what the mooring situation was there and found 2 slots available. On the way back to the boat we spoke to a couple of BW guys who were painting the balance beams. Their recommendation was for us to move up past the top lock if we wanted to get away to an early start in the morning. Apparently the middle pounds leak overnight and drain out and it may take them until 9 or 10am to refill them again. So we took a chance and set off up the flight hoping that the moorings would still be there when we got there. Our luck was in, a cruiser that had been here earlier fixing his headlight had left and we got a great mooring so we are all set for an early start on the tunnel in the morning.

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