We left really early, 6:20, Rod cast us off for the last time, the reason for the early start was the historic boats for the Braunston show were due to start arriving from today, so we wanted to get through Braunston before it got too busy.
It was a pretty overcast start but I am very pleased to say it didn't take too long for the sun to put in an appearance.
The first stretch to the junction at Braunston was fairly uneventful, although we did pass a couple of Kate's boats, we first came across these on our second hire boat holiday, when I rather butch lady informed us, as we struggled to shut a gate, "leave it, it'll shut" she scared us to death, so every time we pass one now we have to do the quote in our deepest voice.
Just before we arrived at Braunston bottom lock we passed the wharf where By The Way was first dropped into the water.
As this is the Grand Union Main Line the locks are double locks, the first that we have encountered for over 6 months. A boat was going up ahead of us, I helped them with the lock and they said they would wait at the next lock for us, these locks are so much easier with two boats.
It got pretty hectic as we got to the top lock, two boats had just come out of the lock and two more were waiting to complete their descent, it was like Picadilly Circus, still we made it through unscathed.
Next was the Braunston tunnel which is two way, we have yet to go through this tunnel and not encounter a boat coming the other way, today was no exception. (Mike I am really gutted there is still no museum at the other end!!!!)
Finally George could see light at the end of the tunnel.
You can see from the picture below how tight a squeeze it is through this tunnel, there are also some pretty serious leaks.
Next stop was the Watford flight. This includes a staircase of 4 locks. The paddles are coloured red and white, you have to open the red one first. The saying is Red before White, you're right, White before Red you're dead!!! I checked in with the lock keeper, who said we could start the ascent immediately so we were off. As we got to the first of the staircase locks, he came over and said, it is so much easier when people know what they are doing, I'll leave you to it and go and help the lady in front. I have of course been milking this for the rest of the day!! Mind you after 12 months it would be a pretty sad state of affairs if I didn't know what I was doing :-)).
Following the Watford flight, we made our way through the Crick tunnel, again it's two way and again we met a boat coming the other way - we also got soaked there is a lot of dripping water as you get towards the end of the tunnel and it is full of lime, so we then had to pull over for Mr B to shammy down the boat.
We now only had one mile to go before we pulled into Yelvertoft marina.
Rod has gone on his last bike ride to pick up the van, it is a pretty mammoth one, but the sun is shining and he was going via the house so he could get on his road bike, so hopefully it has been a pleasurable one.
This is our penultimate post.
Tomorrow I am going to summarise the journey the highs the lows (if I can think of any lows), the things that have made us laugh and the stats - how far, how many locks and how many falls into the canal!!!
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