Top of Foxton Locks to Crick.

Hi Friends.

I was in bed by 9.30 pm last night, with a view to getting up at the crack of dawn. I set my alarm on my mobile phone and on the battery alarm clock, I wanted to make sure I was woken up. I need not have worried because Keith and I were awake at 4 am arghhhhhhh. Keith started coughing so had to get up, which meant not only were we awake so was Marmite and Paddy. We did settle back down under the duvet until the alarms went off. I was then up, bed folded away and Porridge on the go. After breakfast I made up the stoves and then took Paddy out for a walk down the locks. It was lovely to watch the sun coming up over the canal.
By 6.25 am we were ready for the off. We crept past the moored boats, destination Crick.
There is something very majestic about being up at the crack of dawn. I really felt quite honoured to be able to listen to the dawn chorus as it started off and built into an orchestra of bird song. If you have never heard the dawn chorus I completely recommend it. If nothing else it will put a smile on your face. I love travelling early in the morning. Normally if we move early we stop early, but we wanted to get to Crick for around lunchtime, a lot depended on if we had to stop to unload coal though.With us being up so early, the Porridge did not sustain us for very long, so I made us some Bacon rolls, which certainly hit the spot. I think the smell of the Bacon cooking made Keith even hungrier, because he was standing above the stove. They most certainly went down a treat with a cup of Coffee to wash them down.We have a lone Heron on our coal run and I have named it Hector. I am of course presuming it is a male ;0). Hector has taken up residence on the summit and at the moment does not have a love interest, so if there is a female Heron out there looking for love the Leicester Line Summit is the place to be. Of course if Hector should turn out to be female only males need apply.
I got to take the tiller for a while, which is boosting my confidence no end. Keith got me to do an emergency stop, which I managed pretty well. It is all about using the wheels in the right order, I will need to practice it a few times to get it completely right, but was chuffed with my effort, as I managed to keep the boat in the middle of the canal. One of the other joys about moving so early in the morning, is the fact that there are no other boats on the move. We did not encounter another boat until 10 o'clockish.

We arrived at Crick at 12.10 pm and found a mooring without any problem at all. There was only Four boats on the moorings and one boat moving off, that boat turned out to be NB Derwent 6 with Al and Del onboard heading for Welford and an appointment with the blacking brush. We said our good mornings and will catch up with them properly on Tuesday when we make our deliveries up the arm. I can see an evening in the pub coming on.

Having moored up, Keith started playing with his new laptop. He has all his stuff to load on to it, so he will be busy all weekend. I made us some lunch before heading to the shop, whilst walking along the footpath I bumped into Jo and John off of NB Acen, we passed the time of day before we both went on our way. I got to the Post Office come shop but unfortunately they did not have the bread I wanted, they had sold out so the lady offered to put me a loaf by for the morning, which was great. On my back to the boat, I stopped to natter to Chrissie and Richard on NB Digitalis and got invited in for a Coffee and further conversation. Chrissie and Richard are selling their boat Digitalis with ABNB (CLICK) and moving to Norfolk. It will be a sad day when they leave the canal and their boat. But we all have things we want to do in our lives, so we wish them lots of luck with their new adventures.

Back onboard our boat, Keith is still working on his new laptop, he seems to have ironed out the teething problems and is loading on all his stuff.

I have just heard the news on the radio about the earthquake in Japan, my prayers and thoughts go out to everyone caught up in the tragedy.

Chat soon xx