Weatherwise, the best day for this trip - bright, sunny, warm with a slight breeze in the air to avoid being too stifling.
After a very slow start to the day we walked up the hill to the church for the morning service at 11.15, conducted by the quite new parish priest. Although the church is somewhat conventional - old style hymn book, robed choir etc etc, she is obviously intent on livening up the place and, especially, looking to continue a very inclusive atmosphere. There were around 60 people including a small group of young children and a dozen-strong choir.
Opposite the church is Merryhill House. The same information board that old us about the windmill tower, also has this to say about the house. "This imposing house was built by the Reverend Clough in 1840 for his bride Sarah Lamb who was the daughter of the squire at Bragborough Hall, Sarah was much younger than Reverend Clough, who promised her a house similar in style to her previous abode. Now no longer the rectory it has imposing views toward the canal"
As we returned to the boat the canal view could not have been bettered!
We urgently needed a water point - the nearest was just around the corner which does have the full range. A bit further on and there are separate points for water, elsan and rubbish.
We were a bit concerned about a possible delay at Braunston locks so we pressed on, getting lunch on the go. As it happened, although one boat had gone up a few minutes earlier, there was no queue and we only had to wait for boats already working their way down the bottom lock.
After that kit was a bit more manic with a long procession of boats coming down, including a pair of fuel boats. (We would have fulled up with diesel from them but they nor we wanted to hold up the queue behind) alas, most of the boats were hire boats whose four days of cruising seemed to make them think that they knew everything there is to know about working locks and proceeded to wind up paddles without checking whether it was safe to do so. One of these was a gate paddle above an unsecured boat in an empty lock! Fortunately no harm was done except to hone our reputation as grumpy old gits (or one at least!)
All this meant that we only managed to take a couple of photos in the entire flight as we were too busy.
At the top we were then straight into Braunston Tunnel. We could see a boat not too far into the tunnel coming towards us and we safely passed each other after about five minutes. There was also anther boat going in the same direction as ourselves, already about half way, but going extremely slowly. We caught up with it just as we emerged back into the sunshine. Judging distances away from another boat inside a tunnel is not easy even though the tunnel bands (the red and cream on the stern) do help. Care is needed to avoid running into the back of a boat running at a slower pace.
We were keen to make sure that we could moor with a tv signal - the next episode of Bodyguard is on tonight - and we took the first opportunity after Welton Wharf and coming out of the tree lined cutting on the tunnel approach.
4.2 Miles - 6 Locks
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