Monday 30th March
Today we set off early (the alarm went off at 6-30am) to beat the bad weather (which never actually materialised until this evening) and were on the water point about 7-30am. We had 5 miles to do to get to Fleckney but with 12 locks this was going to take a while.
It was a bit breezy but not too bad and it was not raining when we left Kilby about 8am. Things were not looking good on the lock front though as we had to empty the first lock when we got there, aaargh shades of Friday. And not only was it full but the gates at the other end were also open so I had to shut them before I could empty it.
This was the case for the next 6 locks and we were getting thoroughly pissed off as the wind increased making manouvreing more difficult. At the 7th lock a boat arrived and waited to come down after we had come up but neither of the blokes on it gave me a hand!
Our luck changed for the final 5 locks though because just as we got to the first one, deep joy, 2 boats came round the corner and all the rest were set for us, hoorah!
We moored up at Fleckney about 1pm and went off to the village for a paper. we were perturbed to find the pub we usually go to there was not open. So many village pubs don’t open on Mondays. We walked round to the second pub only to find it was also closed.
Back at the boat we decided we had plenty of time to carry on to Foxton and this is what we did. A good move all round as it turned out. The extra hour and a half travelling with no locks gave me a chance to cook the dinner, do the hoovering and the ironing. And as the weather forecast for Tuesday was appalling it meant we wouldn’t have to travel to Foxton in the wind.
