Buckby flight improvements.

7 locks, 5 miles, Now moored at Stowehill

Another early start was on the agenda to get us to Weedon reasonably early and hopefully find some moorings. It was going to be an interesting trip down the Buckby flight to see what improvements had been made since we last passed this way. On our last visit lock 8 had one gate all chained up restricting the movements of wide beams without BW assistance but this was now fully operational. The only problems we had this visit was with locks 12 and 13 where water was spilling over the top of the bottom gates on both locks and yet the water level in the pounds above the top gates was higher there fore making it impossible to open the top gates to gain entry to the locks. After opening the top sluices to lower the pounds to an equal level with the locks did we manage to gain entry. An unfortunate waste of water but unavoidable.

We stopped for a short while opposite Whilton Marina for a coffee break and a few bits from the chandlery. Also a visit to Bedazzled for another LED light for a recently installed reading light. Once refreshed it was off to Weedon with only a few other boats to contend with today. The moorings at bridge 24 and the Aqueduct were all full but there was still room near the water point above bridge 26 where we plan to stay for the week-end.

This afternoon Dot got a phone call from Paul Balmer of Waterway Routes enquiring as to our present whereabouts and if we were happy to accept an uninvited visitor to which we said "Of course, we'd love to". Paul was on his way from Northampton where he had just helped N/b's No Problem and Moore 2 Life down the 13 Northampton flight locks. He was actually on his way to North Wales to visit his mother but can never resist a chance to get out on the cut. Paul's business is making DVD's of the canals and rivers of Britain. Thank you Paul for our complimentary copy of the Llangollen DVD and it was great to make your acquaintance at last.

Next week weather permitting we will be down those same locks onto the River Nene ourselves.

1070 locks, 1392 miles, 41 Tunnels, 41 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006