To pastures new

Welford Wharf one Cold January morning

The Welford Arm ... very serene

The BW mooring at Welford was valid until 31st March, thereafter, I had arranged a years mooring near Foxton.

Bosworth tunnel - with smoke!

As is usual for me, knowing that we must move from Welford, I started to get itchy feet, so we decided to take a slow 2 week trip to the new mooring. By now, Liz and I had a pretty good idea of what we were doing, so we lit the fire and set off. A brief grounding on the Welford arm was quickly rectified and on we went.
Cruising is much enhanced by confidence and knowledge, but Bosworth tunnel taught me a new rule, don't go into a tunnel with the fire burning ... cough cough.

Despite having done Blisworth both ways on a day-boat, and Crick south to north on Quo, I found Bosworth tunnel strangely unnerving, our own smoke didn't help, but I had some real spacial awareness issues, at one time thinking we were going backwards ... must drink more water with it, or get a more powerful light.

We moored for lunch in the middle of nowhere, cold but sunny .... it was wonderful.

After luch we chugged to where we had left Liz's car, by bridge 52 and moored-up at the foot of the beautiful Laughton Hills.
Here, over the following days, we were wowed by the magnificent view, the Buzzard, the Heron, the Moorhens, the Ducks and according to Mandy from the boat-next-door, we missed seeing an otter by about a minute.

I popped up to see the boat every day, which was now chained and padlocked to the Armco for security. One windy morning, I received an email from British Waterways asking me to ring them, which I duly did. Turns out, silly old me had left a front door unbolted, and it was flapping open in the wind! Mandy had noticed it and rung BW with the boat details ....bless her .... I rushed up there and secured it before anything worse could occur. It's nice to know that there are so many good people on the canal.

Our next move was just a short hop to the other side of the bridge for a change of view, and I made a start on polishing some of the brass fittings and vents.

At this time, I noticed that we were still getting a small amount of water on the engine room floor, but put it down to a split in the container that caught the drips from the stern gland, I had noticed a drip from where the prop bearing screwed into the stern tube, and bought some sealant to fix it sometime in the future .... nothing to worry about .. I just mopped out a pint or so of water every couple of days.
Next move was to bridge 56, again, just for a change of view ... still marvelous ...

Friday evening, assisted by Liz's niece Sairs, we moved to bridge 60 in readiness for Foxton Locks. A lovely little trouble-free cruise on a beautiful evening. Saturday dawned, and Liz and I set off early, left her car at the new mooring, then back to bridge 60 for the main event!

Just one boat waiting

It was a beautiful sunny morning , and we got to the top of Foxton Flight with just 1 boat ahead. After a mere 15 minute wait, we were off ....  Red before White, and you'll be all right :o)

What a sight!

I shall never forget when the top lock exit gates opened, it was like you were in mid-air ... magical.

Liz attracted a small band of young helpers as she worked paddles and opened gates, one young lad went all the way down with us, and his mum said he'd told her " I'll remember this for the rest of my life" ... we felt ten feet tall.

It took just 45 minutes, with just one squeaky moment coming out of the bottom lock trying to avoid ramming the trip boat Vagabond. We moored up by the water point beyond the bridge, and whilst filling the tank, passed the time with Jo and Keith Lodge on Hadar ... last seen in passing up at Welford. A very interesting couple, and a very nice working boat.

We lingered there for lunch aboard, then set off for the marina, stopping just short and mooring on the Armco, not wishing to spoil a wonderful day by blundering into the moored boats.

After our dodgem incident with Crystal's boat up at Welford, we made what I call a "Bonker", using an old mop, a chamois leather, a cable tie and gaffer tape. Effectively, it is a boxing glove on a stick, and we were hoping that this would help prevent embarassing banging sounds as we tried to take our place in the marina, third boat down the pontoon, with 20 cm clearance either side.

Quo safely in the marina

Sunday morning came, and we steeled ourselves to moor in the marina. To enable our mains electricity hookup to reach, I knew that we had to reverse in, and we had never been more that a couple of yards backwards before!

Suffice it to say, that with Liz on a pole at the front (not THAT kinda pole!) and me steering, we got her lined-up, then using subtlety (not one of my strong points), slowly chugged back into our slot, what a relief :o)