11th May to
Just stooging around really……………..
I mentioned that this year’s cruising was a bit complex. The funeral was one of the complications, but that is now behind us. The next “complication” is a visit from our son George and his family, followed by a visit by some more friends. I say “complication” because we have to find somewhere to meet them and somewhere safe for them to leave their car. And – for George we need to be near a hotel as we do not have room for 3 guests.
Location always causes a bit of head scratching, but we decided on Market Harborough. As it’s not that far from where we are, we are spending this next couple of weeks kinda killing time. Thus Monday saw us staying put again on our lovely spot. We have a field of cows – young heifers and a bull – and they spend their time doing circuits of the field. They seem quite interested in us and it’s mutual. I love cows. There are also some hares in the field and they have also entertained us with their antics and their big ears.
The blossom at this time of year is so beautiful, with all the blackthorn trees bedecked in their white bridal gear. It always reminds me of a Ladybird book I had as a kid called “What to Look for in Spring”. It’s one of a series of four lovely books which I recently bought for Chester. They may be vintage but the annual cycle remains the same.
However it’s not quite so beautiful when the blossom goes over and a stiff breeze deposits the tiny white petals on your boat. And then it rains and they stick all over your roof, you boat-hook and pole and your deck. Tsk!. And that’s when my trusty hand-held leaf blower comes into play! It gets used in the Autumn as well as at this time of year and it was a bit of an impulse buy that actually works very well and saves a lot of sweeping and brushing. Once the petals have dried.
Rain was promised from mid-week and so it was that Tuesday – a lovely sunny morning – saw me setting off to wind the boat. We were turning because we planned to go back to Welford basin at the weekend – for another grocery delivery, use of services and because we like it there!
I set off with a plan to visit North Kilworth Marina to pop and get some loo blue and we’d also use it to wind. There was already someone on the service mooring, they only sell green, so we decided we’d just turn and go back out. I was hoping that we’d be able to get back to our lovely spot – but facing the other way. Once again, the odds were in our favour and I was able to slip back into our OBA (One Boat Armco) mooring. Like putting on a pair of comfy slippers!
But before that, I had a close encounter with another boat at a blind bridge hole. I had noted it’s potential hazard on the way down and so I tooted to let anyone that might be around know of my presence. I heard nothing and thus proceeded. Imagine my horror when I rounded the bush to see the nose of an oncoming boat coming through the bridge hole. An added complication was a fibreglass boat, right by the obstruction. I didn’t want to have to use it as a fender, so I took swift evasive action and we avoided a collision. The other boat said “It’s always at blind bends eh ” I replied in the affirmative and said “That’s why I tooted”. He laughed and went on his merry way. Does nobody toot any more?
Wednesday was just as bad as promised! It was changeable to say the least! We had hot blasts of sun followed by driving rain followed by hail storms and then hot sunshine again! We felt very sorry for boaters – mostly hirers – who have to continue come what may. They needed everything type of clothing from sunsuits to sou’westers! And it was so cold! In the six years since we have had Old Nick, we cannot remember a colder May. I had to put my lovely cuddly dressing gown on over my clothes in an attempt to keep warm! And the boys must have been chilly too!
We had an absolute nightmare on Thursday – I had a message from the account that I use for Electrika, to say that there were some strange transactions on the account. We had been scammed! There followed an entire day of phone calls, being kept on hold, searching for solutions and extreme frustration with Meta’s customer service (or lack of it). The inability to bypass the AI stronghold to speak to an actual person is a modern and hellish construct. And very stressful indeed. Horrible. I do not wish to have another day like it, thank you very much. I was in tears at one point!
And – in the midst of it all – Anita on narrowboat Watt Way (Narrowboat Travels with Charlie) turned up and popped round for a chat – and we had to quickly explain what was going on. Later in the day I popped over to return her call but she must have been out. I just hope she wasn’t offended! She has an electric boat like ours, but built by Mothership Marine, and it’s always good to meet up with such folk. We finally finished work at about 8pm, by which time we were in no mood for socialising and planned to pop in and see her in the morning.
I awoke on Friday, drew back the curtain to see her just disappearing into the distance so bang went that plan. But it was a nice sunny day and we set off for the short cruise back down to Welford Basin. As we left, I was overjoyed to finally hear a cuckoo. Such a very lovely thing to hear, I always think. Very English/British.
While we were in the lock, we used the handy level of the roof to clear of the pretty white petals – now a brown stodge! It looked 100% better although would need a little more attention when we had time. An orange boom has been installed at the locks since our last visit (2022). One of the vlockies told us that a boat had rammed into the culvert and pretty much destroyed it. And CRT were literally mid-repair when another boat struck, so the boom was the solution. Not very attractive and goodness only knows how/why they hit it in the first place, as it’s way off centre channel.
Lock done, we made our way down to the basin where, once again, we were lucky enough to find a nice space with our name on it. And, after a bit of work on Electrika, we decided lunch at the pub was a nice idea. We had seen that Anita on Watt Way had also come down here and we stopped and had a chat with her and explained about our awful day. And then we schlepped off to the pub and a fish finger sarnie each tvm!
While i was getting our evening meal (not a big one as we were still stuffed from lunchtime), Paul took the boys for a walk to the nearby reservoir, which actually – as you can see from the pic below – turned out to be two reservoirs. Both seemed to be pretty low on water, which was a bit of a surprise,but he pronounced it to have been a nice walk.
Saturday morning and time to wind the boat, take on water and dump the loo. We’d just finished when another boat arrived ,so we set off down to the lock, where a boat was just going down. By the time we had tied up, they had left the lock so we quickly filled it and emptied it again.
As we made our way back to the junction, we spotted a familiar face. None other than the World’s Greatest Harbourmaster, and Paul’s old school pal, Mark Willmott.
As it seemed a nice sunny day, we decided to wash the dog’s beds. And then we looked at the forecast – once they were already in the machine – hmm. Rain on and off most of the day. Ah well. We’ll cope.
We went through the 1,166-yard (1,066-metre) Husband’s Bosworth Tunnel and found it to be largely dry, but the day had deteriorated and it was actually pretty cold. We needed to press on though, as we wanted to get through Foxton Locks this weekend, because we cannot do it during the week.
We were both chilled to the bone by the time we pulled over. So much so that we actually put the heating on! Mid May. Unheard of! But the boys had found a solution to the lack of beds! Cheeky monkeys!
It had been a very changeable day but the forecast rain soon started in earnest, but not before Paul had taken the boys out for a pee break. As he was walking along, he saw a horse that was clearly struggling to get up and in some distress, while her foal looked on. She seemed to have rolled and got one of her legs through the fence. Luckily a couple of riders were passing and Paul drew it to their attention and they went and rescued her. We saw her the following morning, none the worse for her plight.
We cruised the short distance down to Foxton locks, another Waterways Wonder – and had a bit of a wait while a couple of boats came up and then it was our turn. Foxton Locks were opened in 1814 and are both the longest and the steepest set of staircase locks on England’s canals. They lift boats up (or drop them down in our case) 75 feet over a 3/4 (1200m) mile stretch.
The flight is made up of 10 locks in two sets of five and the view from the top, out over the rolling Leicestershire countryside. is incredible. There were lots of gongoozlers – particularly at the bottom, and plenty of kids to press-gang into opening/closing the gates and, with the help of the vollies and the kids, we got through the flight in a good time.
The locks – even to this day – are a bit of a bottleneck – and so it was that an “inclined plane” was built in the early 1900s, to speed up the process. Inclined planes have been around for many hundreds of years – indeed they were first used by the Egyptians on the Nile. So you’d think the technique might have been perfected by the 20th Century, and it actually worked quite well. It took 12 minutes to move 2 boats up and down, saving both water and time.
The plan had been to widen the locks on the Leicester line to make it more compatible with the mainline of the Grand Union., but this never happened. There Is more information about it here but it had a short life, being “mothballed” in 1911 and the machinery finally sold off for scrap in 1928. You can still see evidence of it and there is a great museum on site, too.
We pulled over just after the bottom as more rain was promised and we didn’t fancy a soaking! And that was the end of another couple of weeks.
Looking ahead we are meeting George, Bethany and Chester next weekend, in Market Harborough – hoping the weather will be significantly better!
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| Period | Miles | Locks |
| 11th May to | 16 | 12 |
| Cumulative 2026 | 61 | 28 |