Cruising Again

Sunday/Monday 18/19th July 2010.
Weedon to Whilton then Stoke Bruerne.
15 Miles no Locks.

Moored at Weedon by the road bridge

Sunday.  We had a visitor on Sunday, Jayne's friend Annette, she had driven over to see us and hopefully have a short cruise on the boat and as we needed to wind ( turn around ) she was in luck, the closest point where we could wind was Whilton Marina about 2 1/2 miles away, after reaching the Marina and winding we moored up outside for an hour or so for 2 reasons, the first was to pop into the Chandlers/Shop to see if they had any bread ( no ), and secondly we had passed a small fishing contest on the way up and this slows progress, so hopefully by the time we returned they would be packing up, I seem to remember that contests finish at 1.00 o'clock and this proved to be right because as we past them they were packing their gear away.
We got back to Weedon and moored a little further along the Canal this time, Jayne and Annette had decided that they were going into the Heart of England pub for a very late lunch so I had no choice but to go as well !!.
At about 5.00 pm Annette left to drive home and we returned to the boat, I don't know what was going on that evening in or around Weedon as we saw Paramedics and Fire Appliances roaring round with all the lights and sirens on we also had a Police Helicopter hovering not far away, it all lasted about 45 minutes and then went quite.

Monday. We had a few things to do today while travelling, the first was to fill the water tank at the water point by Weedon Beck Bridge, we had a bit of a wait as 2 boats were already there, Jayne decided to put a second load of washing in the machine as the tank was filling, seemed to take ages, the water pressure at the tap was very low.
The next job was to fill the Diesel tanks, they were nowhere near empty but we like to keep them nearer the top that the bottom. We had spotted Red Diesel at 67p a Litre ( base price ) at Rugby Boat Sales last Thursday when we pasted going back to Weedon, we were going to fill up then but I decided to leave it until today which proved to be a bad decision as when we got there there they had virtually run out and were not getting a fresh delivery until Tuesday, so it would have been cheap Diesel if they had any or if I had done as I was told by Jayne and filled up last Thursday !!

The well looked after Caravan field opposite where we moored last week

The next stop was close to Nether Heyford so that I could cycle to the shop for Milk and Bread, you will notice that we use a lot of Milk and Bread mainly due to our addiction to a nice mug of tea and a taste for Fresh Bread.

After I returned from the shop we had lunch and then set off again, the sun was really hot by now as we cruised towards Gayton Junction were the Canal branches off towards Northampton and the river Nene, there is a British Waterways facility block at the Junction where I could empty the Cassettes. After that job was done it was time to sort out the waterproofs ready for the trip through Blisworth Tunnel which is always wet due to water coming down the ventilation shafts and other land drain points.

                                    

Blisworth Mill, now smart Apartments

Into the tunnel and the first of the 4 boats we met coming the other way did not have a headlight, not very good that, the only thing that caught my eye was our headlight reflecting on the glass in their front doors, they said that the bulb had failed. We moored up on the visitor moorings about 300 yards before Stoke Bruene Canal Museum, we will stay here until Wednesday, Satellites OK for the Television but the Broadband is poor.

Jayne is always telling me that I drink too much tea, it's 9.30 on Tuesday morning as I write this blog and I am on my third mug !, however a chap, of a similar looking age to me, has just Zig Zagged past us on the towpath drinking a can of "Special Brew", which would she prefer ?