Monday, 5 May 2014

4th May. Day 2. Leicester Ring. Braunston to near Yelvertoft.



Watford Locks.

View of Grendal in pound between bottom and next Watford lock.

Set out about 8.30 am. Quickly turned left (felt more like straight on) from Oxford to Grand Union canal. Picked up water. Shortly after this the canal around Braunston was looking lovely, with a cafe on a barge and a couple of craft barges and lots of activity. It was a lovely sunny morning which helps.
Braunston flight is all double wide locks for 2 boats to go in side by side. We were joined on this flight by an experienced canal man who lived in London and had once spent 4 months on his boat while in between jobs in London. He would get his wife to come up for weekends organising Friday and Sunday railway stations for her to get there and back.
This was quickly followed by Braunston tunnel. Opened in 1796 and 2042 yards long. Dug from both ends with a miscalculation which means there is a kink in the middle. Its far from dead straight and was a real challenge to navigate. Because of the bikes on the roof I wore a head light. That was until the driver of the 3rd boat we passed said pointedly “Headlights don't help”. Well it was helping me see the bikes. They still got some tunnel in their tyres but no harm done. We passed 4 boats coming in the opposite direction. I only banged into the first but I don't know if that was my or his fault. Took about 20 minutes.
Stopped for lunch at 12.30 . We'd turned left onto the Leicester branch of the Grand Union Canal at Norton Junction (very pretty). This canal is a lot less busy than where we had been.
We stopped just after bridge 60 where the bank was nice and had intended to walk to Watford Gap services to get a paper. But Rachel realised the nice bank was because we were in a winding hole- which its illegal to moor in and you can be fined! So we set off instead. The bank near the services was not good to moor at so we carried on.
We arrived at the bottom of the Watford Staircase Locks at about 13:30. Rachel went off to find the lock keeper. You need to check in to book a slot. The instructions were to go up the first lock and wait for 5 boats to come down. There was a boat in the pound between the 2nd and the staircase of 4 locks already. We waited inbetween locks for an hour. Once we started we did the staircase and separate top lock in half an hour. This meant we'd done the short cruise and 7 locks in 2 hours thus keeping the 3 lock miles an hour average!
The locks were followed quickly by Crick tunnel. This was finished in 1814 and is 1528 yards long. It was easier but wetter than Braunston because its straighter but mostly because there were no boats coming in the opposite direction! As we entered a boater coming up put down his umbrella and suggested I should get one ready as its wet- particularly towards the other end. He was right, although without an umbrella I used my hat and a waterproof jacket which was a good idea. Water pouring from the roof at about 4/5 along tunnel.
We moored up opposite Crick marina about 16.00 and went to Crick in the search of a paper. No luck but Rachel bought 3 magnum type ice creams and a tub. We enjoyed a magnum each straight away!
We decided to do another hour or two after a cup of tea. We stopped after bridge 22 near Yelvertoft about 18.45 for the night.
Had chicken curry and naan followed by treacle tart for tea.
Total day= 13.5 miles and 13 locks in day = 26.5 lock miles.

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