Day Two – Watford Gap

 

A quiet night in Crick then up earlyish to bimble on to the Watford flight of locks. Just as we set off another boater quickly cast off and pushed in front of us – now is that rude/not part of the boater’s code? He also zoomed into the Crick tunnel, even though a boat was almost out. We waited. Saves the stress of going into a tunnel – for us and the outgoing boat, too. And down at the flight of locks was our old friend Adrian, on duty.

They do keep these locks looking good – with lots of flowers and even a batch of herbs.

Viv is driving this time and Steven does the locking – with help from the volunteers.

Bit of a nervous first one (does it show??) but after that Viv does well.

Seven locks and a drop of 16 metres – staircase locks in the middle – meaning, you can’t pass other boats!

Does she have her eyes closed?

This pic shows just how deep these locks are, as the top gate is also the bottom gate of the next lock, if you see what I mean.

The locks are not interconnected – instead you open the paddles (red ones then white ones) which allows water to flow in and out of the side ponds.

We did have a bit of a wait – about 2 hours before we even got into the locks but they let us down and by this time Viv had mastered the art of getting a 65 foot boat just 6’10” into a lock just 7′ wide – that’s just an inch either side!

And on to our mooring, just 20 mins away, past the Watford Gap services, outside Weltonfield marina. Quiet & scenic.

 

And very rural too but still bl**dy hot! 29 degrees in and outside the boat.

Cratch cover looks good. Better this burgundy than the old black one.

We did see dozens of narrowboats going to and fro – well it is Saturday, in August, darling. But this was a new one (tender to a widebeam, Great Escape)