By way of telepathy last night I looked at the most recent posting of George and Sue on NB Caxton last night to see they were at Hilmorton. I text George and confessed to an early start but could we call in to see them, a very brave Yes! after he tactfully enquired just how early.... so at about 9am we arrived and had the added joy of seeing George at the bottom lock to work us through.
George is a good egg.
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| Lovely sight of George waiting next to an open lock to help us through. |
* note to Carol, David had put trousers on for the first time this day, but George is made of sterner stuff.
NB Caxton has a bit of a famous blogging history if you think you recognised the name. Built for Joe & Lesley HERE boaters whom we crossed the Wash with two summers ago, then sold to Paul & Elaine HERE who blogged about their time before moving to a motorhome and selling Caxton to George & Sue HERE so quite unusual me thinks for one boat to have had three blogging owners concurrently.
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| George and Sue on the lovely NB Caxton |
You know what it's like when you meet up again people you haven't seen for a while (in this case three years when we had supper all together at the same pub on the Ashby that we were in this week, thats what put Caxton in our minds I guess) but we nattered away and in the blink of an eye it was 11am and we said our goodbyes, we wanted to get through Braunston today and as you can see it wasn't sunny.
Walking back to WaL there was this amazing boat, it reminded me instantly of the "Dazzle" camouflage used a century ago HERE I didn't see a name.
As we left and passed by, George took about 8 or 9 photos of us passing him by on his top of the range camera... he sent them to me and I decided on this one, today I have just seen he has used exactly the same one!
Great minds I guess.
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| This is my rain hat, but it did stop quite quickly |
An uneventful run down to Braunston but this stretch does have some fab mooring spots...
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| The iconic Boaters view of Braunston church coming into view |
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| Of course the twin bridges are pretty iconic too. |
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| NB Enceledas |
Plenty of fun was had onboard this boat recently when it took part in the BCN Challenge with MY Boat Sharer Amanda and Lesley (From NB Caxton and later NB Yarwood)
you can read all about that and their part in the Braunston Vintage Boat Rally that we sadly missed HERE
We had a joyful run up the Braunston locks with a family with two children, they were in their Grandad's boat for the weekend and really enjoying it but the inexperienced captain was lacking confidence driving his FIL's pride & joy with the prospect of the tunnel fast approaching.... I rather think our three SIL's might be twitchy at the suggestion too!
Now I don't know if this year has been a good year for Kingfishers but here we are again spotting this pair of them Braunston side of the tunnel, about three years ago I saw one the other side if the tunnel but never again, this year we have been totally thrilled to have seen Kingfishers many times.
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| Hard to get one in shot let alone focused before they're off. |
We did the locks in sunshine, both boat crews stripping off layers as we went. When we exited this was the sky. Put yer foot down man lets get it moored up before today's soaking....
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| East towards Watford and the Buckby locks |
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| North towards Welton |
We had options in mind to moor up and get the other side of the boat polished or carry onto our favourite mooring at
bridge 22 but in the event we combined these two options of mooring up without any polishing before it hammered down with only kindles for fun.
Supper was fishcakes and salad
You should both be down here on the Thames Lisa - 20 degrees, no wind at all, blue sky and it's warm and will stay this way for the next 3 days oh and no rain either - David could get back into his shorts. Love the hat btw! xx
ReplyDeleteWell actually Carol I am home already and trying to get the boating part of this blog completed by Wednesday. Today we were cycling on the south coast and yes in the sunshine and tee shirts, people were swimming!!!
Deletebut don't tell anyone.
Hats, rain and spectacles are most problematic, throw into that mix hair that blows all over your face then sticks to your lenses..... This hat works well for me.
Lisa xx kiss for George