Onward to Braunston.

Travelled 8.24 miles, worked 3 locks in a time of 3 hours 45 minutes.

When I took Paddy out for his walk, as I opened the back cabin doors a boat went past us and who whould it be but Nigel on Enseabee. I gave him a wave and we had a quick chat as I walked along the towpath. We were to see him again in Braunston.

A duller start to the day with some large black clouds overhead, which looked like they were threatening rain, but we were off at 8.30am Braunston bound or somewhere close by.

The Rugby aerials came into view as we approached Hillmorton Locks.

We were in a queue, which was no surprise as a few boats had gone past us before we got going. Nigel was a boat ahead of us. 

Whilst we were waiting for the first lock to fill, Keith was chatting to Brian on Tug Kyle, Brian is having some work done at the boat yard above the lock, so is moored below the locks for a few days. Brian then followed us up the locks with his dog Ghost, chatting as we went along. Fortunately as boat went up through the locks, boats were also coming down making the locks easy. They only have the towpath side locks open, because they are working on the others, so apparently at the weekend it was chaos.

Locks done it was onward.

Bridges 79 and 80 are undergoing a lot of restoration work at the moment.

The canal is restricted, so you do have to take it slowly, but it is wonderful to see the bridges being worked on at long last. Something tells me that it is going to be a long job, due to the extensive damage.

As we got closer to Braunston, I could here the roar of a combine harvesters engine and there it was in full flow. The rush was on to get the crop in before the forecast rain arrived. 

Braunston church spire came into view, which is always a welcome sight for any boater, who may have had a long day, which of course we had not, but it still makes me smile. We had first thought of mooring outside of Braunston on a favourite spot of ours, but it was already taken, so I suggested that possible all the boats we had seen coming towards us had come out of Braunston after the weekend and so maybe there would be empty moorings. 

We took the plunge and headed into Braunston. We had our nose in the bridge 'ole of bridge 89 when a shared ownership boat began to appear around the bend, we thought they may hold fire so we could actually get out of the bridge 'ole before they entered, but no they kept coming and coming. Keith reversed back into the bridge 'ole to try and line Hadar up to make the bend and pass moored boats, after all 70ft boats do not bend in the middle, but still the shared ownership kept coming. As we were pretty much through the bridge 'ole, the other boat continued to try and pass us and so we took some of their paintwork with us. Yes there is just enough room for two boats, but when their is a bend and moored boats it pays for boats to give way to others. As we were in the bridge 'ole the ownership boat should have given way. There had been a boat behind them, who did hold fire and allow us to clear the bridge 'ole and moored boats and I thanked them for waiting, to which they replied "Your welcome". I was right about the empty moorings, we found a mooring at the Braunston turn. Having moored up, we closed the boat up and walked back to see Mike on narrow boat Draco and butty Success, who we had said "hello too after we cleared the ownership boat. It was lovely to finally say "hello" face to face, unfortunately Krystina was not there, but hopefully we will see her another time. It was lovely to have a chat with Mike. We also got chatting to Nigel on NB Enseabee, who is moored in front of us. 

After lunch again we shut the boat up and set off this time for Tradline.

We wanted a grappling hook and rope and that is exactly what we purchased. 

On the way back we walked passed NB Enseabee. Back on the boat we are now watching the Olympic Parade, which is fantastic.