Moored at Crick.

Hi Folks.

Caraven Moorings between High House and Stowe Hill. to Crick 10.7 miles, 14 locks, 1 tunnel in 6 hours 45 minutes.

Not got a very good GPRS signal, so going to make this quick.

We left our weekend mooring at 8.15am heading for the Buckby Flight, autumn is very much in evidence now, with the leaves changing colour and fluttering to the ground.

I do love the autumn, but with the leaves now falling in a strong breeze, many of them are landing in the canal, which will only make the silting up problem even worse, British Waterways will most definitely have to think about dredging soon, because we were dragging the bottom for most of the trip to the Buckby Flight which we got to at 10.5am. We thought we would probably have to wait for an hour for someone to share, with but oh boy did we get lucky, because no sooner we had moored up and I had spoken to a boater coming our of the bottom lock, who had not bothered to share with another boat because he was in a hurry, I spotted three boats coming away off behind us, so we waited for them to arrive at the lock. We shared the Buckby Flight with Alan and Fran on NB Woodsey, who also had Pam and Claire on board for a trip to Banbury.

Back to the man who did not share with boats behind him this morning. It is because of people like him the water level was so low again today and it is because of people like him, that they will be closing the Grand Union Leicester Line - Lock 18 Kibworth to Lock 30 Kilby. This has been coming for a while and now it is going to happen from the 24th October, if we do not get some substantial rain, because they cannot take anymore water our of Saddington reservoir because it has hit its limit. It makes me very angry that some people are so selfish.

Ok enough of that rant. We got to the top of the Buckby Flight and said goodbye to Alan, Fran and the crew as they were off to Braunston, we turned on to the Leicester Line at Norton Junction at 12 noon and made our way to Watford Locks, on our way to the locks we came bow to bow with a hire boat, who was on the wrong side of the canal, which meant we collided not once but twice because the hirer did not have a clue what to do to correct the situation. We arrived at the Watford Locks, moored up and I walked up to find Terry the lock keeper, who was sat in his office. Terry told us to follow NB Moonshadow up the flight after the hire boat had excited the final lock. Within minutes we were making a move. Now normally when you get to the staircase you work the red paddles first then the white, but today I had to work them backwards because the locks were leaking so badly they would have flooded our hold. Locks conquered, we thought we might moor up before Crick tunnel, but not a chance in hell because the water level was down and we could not get into the bank, there was nothing for it but to carry on to Crick through the tunnel.

We arrived in Crick and took up their first available mooring close to Crick bridge and who should be moored up in front of us but Bruce on NB Boston. Having moored up Bruce asked if we would like a cup of tea, there was no refusal on that offer. Bruce supplied the tea and I supplied the biscuits, which were enjoyed sitting on the towpath. It was lovely to catch up with all of Bruce's news from his summer travels. We will be seeing more of him over the winter no doubt as he will be at Welford. After a we had consumed the biscuits and our tea, it was time to part company, because I needed to arrange something for dinner, Paddy and Marmite needed feeding and Bruce had jobs to do. The afternoon has worn into the evening and it is already getting dark. This post has been a little longer than expected, but hey ho.

I hope you had a lovely weekend xx