Market Harborough to Thurmaston

We left Market Harborough (great moorings) on Friday morning heading for Kilby Bridge to moor overnight.  We were hoping the the lock below Kilby would soon be repaired otherwise it would be another wait. From there we’ll make our way through Leicester to MGM on Saturday hopefully.

The weather was so hot and the journey passing the locks at Foxton saw them again fairly quiet.  Leaving the Saddington Tunnel (photo below) we were joined by some fellow bloggers who came on board for the journey to Kilby Bridge.  We also caught up with a Canal Club narrow boat with the American couple on holiday who we met in Market Drayton and bizarrely knew about us as they read our blog when at home in the USA!

Leaving Saddington Tunnel.

Canal Club Boat (Mucky Duck) and Chance at Taylors Lock on the Grand Union Leicester Section (colours are not the same in real life!).

Saturday4th June

The British Waterways heroes had repaired the lock below Kilby so we left early (ish)  at 7am.  We did the last stretch through Leicester city and on arriving in the centre the waterways weekend was in full swing.  It was great to see so many boats moored here for a change – it completely changes the atmosphere of the place.

We finally arrived back at the MGM Boat yard in Thurmaston at 2pm and had a few more visitors wanting to view “Chance”. We plan to moor here for the next two weeks to get the last few jobs completed before we set off on our adventures!

Leaving Crick

After an exciting and exhausting week at Crick, we rounded it off with a meal on Tuesday night at The Red Lion with Gerald and Janet off  Nb Toulouse, the very nice Piper show boat moored next to us all week at Crick.

We finally left Crick Marina at 10am on Wednesday and started our return journey to MGM at Thurmaston to get the last few remaining jobs finished.  We arrived at Foxton Locks at 4pm and were 8th in the queue, yet we were out the other side by 6pm, so timed it quite well compared to some who had been there for hours!

Hear we are, last but not least to go down for the day.

We heard from the lock keeper that there were emergency repairs at Lock 30 and 31 (at Kilby Bridge) and they would be closed until Tuesday.  So we have now travelled down the Market Harborough Arm and moored in the basin.  We were amazed to find, next to us in a hire boat,  an American visitor who recognised us as he reads our blog every day in the States!  

We have heard today that the locks are now opening on Saturday! so tomorrow we will continue onto Kilby Bridge so we can be ready to get through when they reopen on Saturday morning.

And the runner up at Crick 2011 is?

We have had a great bank holiday weekend at the Crick Boat Show, with so many positive and lovely comments from people.

There were still lots of people at the show today despite the rain which continued most of the day.

The big surprise for us at the end of the show was that Chance was voted runner up in the Best of Show.  We would just like to thank so many of you who took the time and trouble to vote for us!  and those who came up to us to say they had voted for us, it was a complete surprise and we are feeling really chuffed that people thought so much of Chance. 

The winning boat was William Piper narrow boats Ltd – “Barolo”

2nd Place runner up MGM Boats Ltd.'s  - “CHANCE”

3rd Place Braidbar narrow boats – “Bunnies Warren”

No pictures today, as we are very tired after the wet day. We celebrated the end of the weekend with a bottle of champagne on NB Toulouse  (Piper Boats) our neighbours and new friends for the last few days.

Crick Boat Show!

We have been extremely busy for the last few days hence the lack of blogging!  We are on the final day of the Crick Boat Show, and what an amazing show it has been this year. Thankfully the weather has been kind so far with just a couple of showers on Saturday but the afternoon being really sunny.  Sunday was dry all day and the sun came out at times as well! 

Chance has had people viewing continuously all weekend and we have had so many fantastic and lovely comments and met up with many people who follow this blog. Thank you for coming up and saying Hello to us, we really appreciate it.

The numbers at the show this year seem to be higher than ever. Today we hope to have a look around the show ourselves as we haven’t had ‘chance’ so far!  We hope to treat ourselves to a few things from the chandlery.

A wet and windy day at Crick!

The day started off bright and sunny, but by mid morning the showers began and continued on and off through the afternoon with strong winds, well it is Crick!  So we’ve  had a day inside, cleaning and getting ready for the show.  As we have been asked for some finished internal shots of Chance by many followers, this morning we took a few photos as it is now.  We have been so busy since moving aboard we actually forgot to take some and post them here.

Completed cupboards above the bed.

Bedroom wardrobe and door to stern.

One corner of the bathroom.

The other corner!  Shower and storage for linen and towels.

View from saloon area to galley (and through into bathroom).

View from saloon showing dinette and galley.

View from galley showing saloon and doors out to the well deck (bow).

It’s all just about finished now and ready for the show.

Calm before the storm!

We awoke to a lovely sunny day at Crick Marina. We walked Oscar along the towpath outside the marina and met up with Bruce and Sheila on Sanity Again.  Who gave us some useful information on having a show boat at Crick.

A quiet Crick Marina with Chance on its pontoon -  by this evening the marina is almost full with 8 boats being craned in and many more arriving by canal.  Its been interesting watching all the goings on and the show being set up.  We are now no longer alone – having a large wide beam boat on one side and 70 foot long very traditional narrow boat on the other side.  To fill in some time James has been polishing and varnishing and then polishing again!

This evening we met up with our neighbours on the Piper Show boat next to us  at The Red Lion in Crick village for a very enjoyable pub meal.  Oscar came as well, as any mention of the ‘pub’ seems to summon extra enthusiasm to walk! 

Foxton Locks to Crick

We have arrived at Crick Marina and are on the pontoon for the Crick Boat show at the weekend.  We had a really good journey today, we left at 10am and went up the Foxton Locks flight.

At Foxton top lock - we then had 5 hours cruising without any locks to Crick!  Foxton was very quiet – we came straight up without boats top or bottom.  Oscar was much better today after he fell off a wall at a lock yesterday!  Although he’s slightly limping on a front leg he’s still game for all we throw at him.  A large dose of metacam seems  to be helping him out and he has felt much better today as you can see!

We’ve had lovely weather all day today, even though showers were forecast.

This is us having just passed into the Northamptonshire countryside – lovely wooded cuttings.  We passed under the M1, how glad we were that we were on our narrow boat!  (Peace versus Tempest!)

Do those mugs match the boat?

And finally we arrived at Crick Marina at 4.30pm.  We were helped onto our berth and have been watching other show boats craned into the marina.  It looks like we might be in for an exciting weekend!!  We can’t wait!  (Pics to follow)