"Home" to Brinklow Marina

Last night (Monday) we had a great evening in The New Inn at Norton Junction – good food and good company – we seem to be making a habit of enjoying both these pastimes!

Del, Al and Doug after we had eaten.

This morning we set of from Norton Junction about 9:30 -  with a final good bye from Del and Al on board nb ‘Derwent 6’.

We soon arrived at the Braunston tunnel – nothing that special about the photo but there’s always a feeling of anticipation before we enter a hole in the ground!  This time, although we didn’t meet another boat, we did come across and awful lot of floating logs which had probably fallen off someone’s boat!  The bumping and knocking against the hull of the boat was a bit unnerving in the dark and we brought the boat to a halt before realising what the problem was. No harm done!

When we got to the Braunston flight of locks there was a boat waiting for us to share the locks and so save water.  The boat was ‘Kitty’ and it was 41 years old! and had just been treated to a new engine.  Here’s ‘Kitty’ and ‘Chance nearing the lock next to the “Crooked House”
Half way down the flight and we met up with Dave and Angie on nb ‘Lady Esther’.  They had been reading our blog and knew we coming their way – and they knew we wanted a couple of Angie’s  mooring pin covers.  She very cleverly croches them from old Sainsbury’s carrier bags so they are bright orange and stop people from tripping over the mooring pins on the towpath. 

Here’s Angie showing Doug how she makes them.  Thanks Angie and it was nice to meet up with you.
We were held up at Hilmorton Locks with too many boats in one place!  Mostly hire boats with very inexperienced crews!  It took us about 2 hours to get through and without Doug exercising his leadership skills (i.e. bossing people about!) it would have taken a lot longer.   Further down the canal we got the rain which had been promised today.  We were lucky that it didn’t start until about 4:30.

Here’s a photo of the approach to Rugby in the rain – Five minutes later the heavens really opened!
It’s been a long day (for us).  We arrived and moored up in Brinklow Marina at 6 o’clock (still in the rain!) - but we can’t complain we’ve had a great week and the weather has been really good.  Tomorrow we return home as James has a pre op. appointment at Chichester hospital.