An Interesting day to say the least.

0 Locks, 7.58 Miles.  Now moored at Braunston.

Before we had even finished breakfast this morning things were getting interesting with the Narrow Boat Trust Co Ltd’s barge Nuneaton and butty Brighton passing by our window. I quickly followed hoping to see them work through the lock. By the time I reached the bend in the canal there was all sort’s of activity going on. Apparently the crew had unchained their Buckby cans on Brighton in preparation to fill them at the water point. However, as they were fully loaded with coal bound for London, and sitting deep in the water, Brighton was grounding on the bends and heeling over as Nuneaton dragged her around, which caused the cans to slide off the roof into the canal.

Narrowboat Nuneaton on a coal run to London.

Luckily a hire boat was on the move in the area so they offered to help retrieve the cans bobbing around in the water. Eventually Nuneaton was brought up through the lock and they were just about to ready to rope Brighton through when the hire boat, who had also been at the water point, was allowed to jump the queue. As it was time for us to slip our moorings I returned to Granny Buttons with just a few photo’s.

Butty Brighton with Narrow boat Nuneaton backing back to collect their Buckby cans which had fallen into the canal.

We set off under a clear sky making for a brilliant days cruising. First stop was Napton Narrowboats for diesel. As we had to reverse back to the diesel pump and leave our bow out in the middle of the canal I opted to leave changing the gas bottle in the bow until a more suitable venue could be found. It was while here that we found Nb Valerie. Her owner, Les was away on holiday in Las Vegas so we just left him a message.

Strange paddock companions.

Arriving at Braunston we pulled into the marina and changed the gas bottle so we are now all set to complete our journey fully provisioned. Luckily there was a mooring available by the water point which we will now occupy for the next 36 hours or so.

A really strange array of livestock here, Sheep, Goats, Donkeys, 1 Ass, Cattle, Ponies and 1 Red Deer.

After lunch we wandered up through the locks to the Lord Nelson pub. Who did we spy between the first 2 locks but Nb’s Caxton and Matilda Rose. Both boats were all shut up so we guessed they were either at the pub or out walking the dogs. We decided to check out the pub just in case and lo and behold there they were, Joe, Leslie, Graham and Jill with a Guinness each at hand. Here we spent the next hour or so catching up on all the gossip over an ale or 2 before heading back to the boats. What a great day it has been.

Narrowboat Fero owners give some light hearted banter over their Australian flag being bigger than our NZ flag. But notice the difference?

A total of 27.97 Miles, and 21 Locks on Granny Buttons.