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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Tuesday 19 March 2019

A quiet sort of day

Crikey... it was like being in the M25 with the amount of boat traffic passing us today. Loads more then we have seen in months and 4 hire boats to boot! Weren't they the lucky ones having this as their weeks hire and not last week. And how good was it to meet a passing fellow blogger? Well, I think I'm right. The boat was Nb Cyan and if correct then 'Hello again to Jennifer and John and hope our next meeting isn't so brief'. I hadn't realised you too were bloggers until I looked up the boat name. And then weren't we the lucky ones not to meet any oncoming boats in the two tunnels we did today. I hate meeting a boat in a tunnel 'cos it's dark and you're trying to keep hard over to the right and all the while listening to the sound of the gunwales scrapping along the tunnel wall and then praying your boat and their boat don't make contact. (and breathe...) But today we got away with that but NOT the amount of water dripping through the tunnel roof. Husband Bosworth tunnel was dry,  Crick tunnel was very wet! It was in Crick tunnel that we could have stripped off and had a shower so wet it was, huh...so much for that moored boat just before the tunnel entrance saying it wasn't too bad!  Anyway, today was more of a cruising day with no locks and only the fabulous countryside to admire. There was a decided lack of wildlife although the one critter so close as to have almost posed for the camera was a Pied Woodpecker. I was on the helm and trying to head for the tunnel portal and Ian grabbed the camera, aimed and took so long in pushing the shutter button that the thing flew away! Cameras are clearly not his thing so I suppose I should take that into consideration.

After 17 miles and 6 hours cruising, we stopped before the Watford flight. Another staircase lock of 4 with 3 singles before and after. Will we get away first before the boat moored in front of us does and gets to the flight before us? Depends on how early we want to get up and that will be decided tomorrow as sleep deprivation could be an issue. Loads of noise coming from the M1 to our right, from the goods trains on the railway behind and those newborn Lambs bleating constantly in the field opposite.




 So not much in the way of photos to show today.... sorry.

What a place to leave your workboat C&RT!!!!

Hardly ideal.

Husband Bosworth  East Portal

Crick tunnel East Portal. That boat through the bridge 'ole on the right told us it wasn't too bad inside.

Tonight's mooring.
 And what little wildlife there was today,

Chaffinch



Tame Harris Falcon



1 comment:

Kath said...

It probably wasn’t too wet - for Crick tunnel!! It is usually extremely wet.
Kath (nb Herbie)

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