Left the pound around 9.45 I had walked the short distance to set the lock and as the lock was filling another boat was coming down lock 14 so that made things a bit easier, had a chat to the lady off nb South Downs and it transpired their home mooring was Kingfisher Marina at Yardley where nb Shannen stays and this couple came from Kent also, small world eh!
We approached the Blisworth Tunnel with me full of trepidation (ok I know I'm a woose) at least we could see there was nothing in the tunnel so I was able to relax just concentrated on keeping the high beam light on the tunnel wall so Paul could judge things, as we were on our own we were able to weave round the torrents of water coming from the ventilation vents, dogs weren't impressed mind when they got soaked so they went below and my nice clean carpet now has a paw mark pattern. We were about 2/3rds of the way through when we saw a boat enter the tunnel, in fact we could hear his engine, a nice donky donk engine that Paul would love. We passed one another at a decent speed and didn't even touch each other or the tunnel walls, so perhaps I am getting worked up over nothing. Then another boat came in through this one was a trip boat don't know if he had any passengers chap shouted hello as he went by. When we emerged the sun was shining.
A wide beam and a narrow boat came out of Blisworth Marina heading in the same direction as us. The chap on the narrowboat kept waving us through but Paul kept declining, it appeared that the wide beam although having plenty of revs on the engine was virtually at a stand still so when we were waved through again Paul went for it, as we overtook the narrowboat the chap told us that they were delivering the wide beam and it wouldn't go any quicker, it looked a lovely boat but I don't think I would like to take one out. May be we will get one when we aren't able to travel just have a home mooring and stay put, I really cant see us ever living in a house again so that would be an option for our old age.
We eventually moored up just before bridge 44, we stayed here in October when on our way down, there are few boats here, probably like us just killing time.
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About Me
- nb piston broke
- After years of working,Paul and I retired early. I worked in accounts departments and Paul spent 39 years as an Electrical Mechanical engineer in the industrial refrigeration industry. Paul also served time as a refrigeration engineer officer with P&O, to-ing and fro-ing to NZ. In 2001 we decided to move to Spain where we bought an old Spanish finca that needed total renovation. We took our 1500 Goldwing with us to Spain planning to explore the country. But because of the amount of work that needed doing to the finca we were unable to get full use of our lovely motorbike. So it was shipped back to England where it was sold. It took us 3 1/2 years to finish the house, by which time Paul was hankering after another bike so we bought a new Honda VTX 1300 cruiser which was a pleasure to use with our biker friends. In 2007 the writing was on the wall so we decided to return to the UK and bought our lovely narrowboat which was a big step for me as I had never dreamt of living on a narrowboat. Paul has had sailing boats in the past and regulary crewed on a Medway Bawley Gaffer and raced in many local events. We are continuous cruisers planning to explore as much as we can.
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