Congestion on the Watford flight.

7 Locks 5 Miles 1 Tunnel. Now moored at Crick.

When we set off this morning there had already been a couple of boats go through early but we thought that they would be well clear of the Watford flight by the time we reached it. Wrong! We arrived at the bottom of the flight behind one other boat who was in no hurry to ascend the flight so that put us at the head of the queue. As I went off to find the lock keeper there were 2 boats in the process of ascending the flight and 1 descending on hold in the pound below the top lock. I booked in with the lock keeper and she said that she would come down and see us after she had worked out the movements as she had 2 more waiting at the top.

One of the ascending boats was unsure of what to do and was dithering around causing undue delay. Eventually the lock keeper arrived and called us up the first 2 locks because she needed to let water down into the bottom pound which leaks. At this stage I think she got herself a bit confused because she let us and Kalimera go up the main flight while still having 1 boat on hold in the top pound. Still, she is the boss and what she says goes. The lady on the top boat came down and complained about the undue hold up as she was told that only 3 boats would come up, not 4 which held them up even longer. By the time we cleared the flight there were 3 boats waiting at the top and we were told that there were 4 at the bottom so madam lock keeper was going to be a very busy lady.

The trip through Crick tunnel was slow due to a hire boat in front of us but the tunnel wasn't too bad as far as water seepage from above was concerned. We are now moored close to the new marina extensions that recently opened and are handy to the road for a Tesco delivery on Thursday morning.

It was noted that the towpaths were badly overgrown and don't appear to have been touched since contractors cut the grass at the beginning of Spring. It was only the stretch through Weedon where somebody had taken the trouble to trim the grass back.

1242 locks, 1797½ miles, 42 Tunnels, 41 swing bridges and 19 lift bridges since Nov 2006