I took a day off blogging yesterday as it was such a foul day and we
didn’t do anything. However, the time
that I would have spent blogging was put to good use as I cleaned the bathroom,
hob, oven, microwave and sink – feeling very righteous now!
We had Watford Locks to do today so we were up early and away by 8.50am. We used the services at Buckby top lock and
then turned right at Norton Junction and onto the Leicester Line. Of course there was a queue at the bottom of
the Watford locks and the hire boat in front of us wanted to turn round but he
was stuck on the bottom at the side.
After a lot of pushing and pulling he got free and turned. I walked up to put our name down for the
locks and was told we had a long wait – I had already guessed that! It was 10.30am. It was midday when we went through the first
lock and we up and out by 12.40pm.
Watford locks consist of two single locks, a staircase of four, and a
final single lock. Together they lift the canal 52 feet 6 inches. When doing the locks its “red before white
and you’ll be alright – white before red and you’re dead!” This refers to the colour of the lock gear
that needs to be operated. The red one
opens the paddles to fill the bottom lock and the white one opens the paddle to
drain the upper lock. The water from the
upper lock goes into a side pound which then goes into the lower lock. If you open them the wrong way round you can
drain the side pound and cause all sorts of problems.
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| Under the M1 |
The wind started to get up as we went up the locks and by the time we
got to the top it was very windy. We
pulled over for lunch then moved on.
Through Crick Tunnel – which seemed to go on for ever – and past
Crick. Fortunately, we didn’t want to
stop as the place was rammed! We planned
to moor at Yelvertoft Wharf but there doesn’t appear to be any public mooring
now – only long term. We pulled in a
short way past Yelvertoft in the middle of nowhere and with no other boats in
sight – until another boat pulled in right in front of us!! Why did he feel the need to do that when
there were yards of nice empty mooring!
The wind really started to get up and we were rocked about – sometimes
quite hard! I guess we are quite high
here, I just hope it dies down through the night.
7.90 miles
8 locks
1 tunnel
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