From Heathdavid@aol.com Sat May  1 11:22:33 1999
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 17:33:50 EDT
From: Heathdavid@aol.com
Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org
To: Canals@blacksheep.org
Subject: Soared Round the Ring 2

Monday: We had slept in a little and Tony and Gina left at 7.30. We finally
got on the move at 9.30 and were lucky enough to meet nice couple who waited
for us to join them in the first lock of the Atherstone flight. It turned out
that they used to own a Dawncraft before their present 40 foot NB. The Sun
came out and we noted how friendly all the narrow boat people were on that
stretch of canal. They waved us by as soon as they saw us. At  Hawkesbury
Junction, we got caught out by a heavy shower of rain and quickly put up the
roof and canopy and moored and until it blew over. Luckily, another short
narrow boat had done the same thing and we shared the shallow stop lock
through onto the Oxford Canal. The sun had come out again and with no locks
for a while and we cruised on past Tony and Gina who had already moored at
5.30 . We continued on into the sunset and finally moored at the aquaduct near
Rugby which was within easy walking distance to Tescos and Pizza Hut. We
strolled to Pizza Hut that evening and the following morning went back to
Tescos for provisions and petrol. We met another boat owner there and we all
decided to use the luxury of the a full size toilet. We had decided to have a
more relaxing day and finally left at 10.30 and moored for lunch before we got
into Braunston. It was still packed with boats and we slowly went past  Blue
Heron where it was double moored. We saw Judy deep in conversation on board
but couldn't see anywhere convenient to moor so decided to join what we
thought would be a queue for the lock. We were surprised to find that no one
was waiting to ascend the flight but having done the first lock, we saw a
narrow boat approaching and so moored up to wait for them rather tha  set the
flight against them. Unfortunately there was another narrow boat coming after
them so we had to revert to plan A and did the flight on our own. Braunston
tunnel was the first that we had been through in a long time. As it is not
straight, it meant that after a while, there was no light at the end of the
tunnel! As we travelled through the tunnel and moved quietly along, we heard
the sound of a narrowboat but saw no lights. We were relieved when we slowly
caught up with the boat in front of us but became alarmed when it collided
noisily within a narrow boat coming the other way. If it collides with us we
are sunk I thought. Luckily we breathed in and squeezed by. Having entered the
tunnel in bright sunshine, we left to find that he was a cloudy and cold at
the other end. We moored earlier than normal at 6.30 and put the heater on.

Wednesday: It was really cold first thing in morning and I put the heater on
to maximum. We set off at 8.20 and got to the Watford flight at 8.45 with one
boat in front of us. We found that there were two boats coming down the flight
and we seemed to have to wait a long-time before we could eventually move from
the first pound. We thought that the flight was in an attractive setting and
subsequently thought it nicer than Foxton. We cleared the flight by 10.40. The
Sun had come out while we were going up Watford Flight but it soon gave way to
clouds and a cold wind, which didn't seem to have been noticed by the crew of
another narrow boat, which passed in the other direction, who wore only T-
shirts and shorts. We travelled through Crick tunnel which was pretty wet but
straight and were pleased that we didn't meet anyone coming the other way. We
passed Chris Duchar and his pair of boats but then stopped at North Kilworth
for petrol. As it was almost three-quarters of a mile to the petrol station,
Chris D. had passed by the time I returned. When we got to Husbands Bosworth
tunnel, we could see the light of a boat coming towards us so we waited, and
drifted into the bushes at the tunnel entrance before this boat and a second
emerged. This was a fairly dry straight tunnel. A little further on, we
encountered a small narrowboat that was towing a rowing boat full of large
chunks of trees and as it swung out past some bushes, the rowing boat swung
out further and collided noisily with our bows. Luckily, we seemed to get away
without any damage. Chris D. kindly waved us by again. We told him not to
worry, it was just a "Mirage"! We arrived at the Foxton flight at 4.30 and
were lucky to follow a 40 ft narrow boat straight into the top lock. The lock
keeper was helpful and we had cleared the bottom lock by 5.30  and saw Tony
and Gina again. We turned off down the Market Harborough arm so that we could
more closer to the Shoulder of  Mutton pub that had been recommended by the
lock keeper. I walked back to the flight as I had seen little of it as I had
been in the boat all the way down I thought it was a shame that it was under
repair with lots of orange safety fencing around. I talked to Tony and Gina
and we agreed to pair up for our travels through the wide locks back to
Redhill. We had a nice meal in the Shoulder of Mutton in Foxton village where
the only other patrons seemed to be the crews of two other boats that had
moored near to us.

Thursday: We set off at 9.30 and called for Tony and Gina  and soon passed
through Saddington tunnel which was dry. We were grateful that the narrow boat
at the other end of the tunnel, whose light we had seen as we were part way
through the tunnel, waited for us to clear it. The first few wide locks had
new gates but after that the locks were slow and hard work. The countryside
was quite bland for most of the way. We stopped for lunch at 1.30 after
completing nine locks and by  4.30 were at Kilby Bridge. We had not been
moored long before the cruiser mooring behind us came straight into the back
of Mirage and snapped the flag pole. I was not best pleased but they were very
apologetic and blamed control gear failure in their Z drive so I ended up
hoping that they were able to repair it. Later  on, we saw Chris D. skilfully
manoeuvre his boats into the gap between the other moored boats. By this time
Kilby Bridge was looking pretty busy with a number of boats double moored
along the moorings. Tony and Gina were greatly disappointed to find that
Navigation Pub was closed so we settled down in our boat for a chat and a few
drinks. The cooler box had chilled the lager quite nicely.