The swimming pool and more snow

It snowed late yesterday afternoon.  Fortunately our cruising day was over.  However both of us felt for the widebeam crew that passed by us with their heads down and shoulders turned into the wind!

This morning we pulled back onto the water point at 9am to top up the tank and whilst waiting for it to fill  the CRT Boat Checker arrived with a trainee.  Jan asked him to take our number and he duly obliged (more on that later).  Good water pressure meant it didn’t take long to fill the tank and by 9.30 we were off towards the junction.  Another CRT employee was hard at work with a shovel inside one of their barges.  Jan enquired about his progress digging the swimming pool?  He replied that he just needed to level it off! 

I then asked how long he thought it would take hilm to fill it with water.  Quick as a shot he told us he didn’t have to as nature would being doing it in the afternoon!

The CRT Boat Checker was at Norton Junction so we again asked for our number to be taken and he again obliged with a small grin. 

At Welton Wharf we could hear and then see a working boat approaching.  It then became apparent it had a butty on tow so we pulled over and let them pass.

On approaching Braunston Tunnel portal we could see the reflection of an oncoming boat headlamp from inside the tunnel so we careful eased into the tunnel knowing it would take several minutes for our eyes to adjust to the dark.  The oncoming boat was a Black Prince hire boat and we (of course) met it at the “bendy bit”.  After that the tunnel was empty of boats so we engaged the hyper-drive and made the jump to light speed.

CRT were working on the towpath at the other end of the tunnel.  This is a very damp cutting and the surface water turned the path into a quagmire several years ago.  The crew were compacting metal from the barge to produce a dry and smooth surface.  I just hope they were also laying drainage pipes or I suspect their efforts will be wasted.  

We shared the first four locks on the Braunston Flight with a couple from Leeds who informed us they had visited NZ twice.  It always seems like a long way to go for a holiday and I wonder why people do it.  But then we’ve done it in reverse for similar reasons! 

The CRT Boat Checker and trainee appeared as we were mooring up and we cheekily asked if he would record our position.  He laughed and told us “No!”  I guess that means were now good for 27 days!

To finish the day we had more snow.