We made a fairly early start from Crick and spying a fox running around above the tunnel entrance we were followed through by another 2 boats. Reaching Watford Locks we were the first in queue and were told to go down the first lock and wait in the pound for the ones coming up to pass which turned into a 30 minute wait. The passage down the locks was uneventful and I even remembered that the lower gates of the top staircase lock leak badly and so I had the backdoors shut before I could get a soaking.
We turned right at Norton Junction and it was nice to be on the wide Grand Union again. Entering the cutting leading up to Braunston Tunnel it was good to get out of the wind although we caught up a much slower boat just before the tunnel itself. Slowing down I left a good gap between us but even in the tunnel I had to throttle right back at times to avoid catching up. We met 3 or 4 boats coming though, normally in places where the wall bulged so bumped the sides a few times but nothing serious.
When we reached the top lock we could see the guy on the boat in front was on his own so unfortunately Becky would have to work 2 boats down the locks. I was hoping for a hire boat with a large crew but you can’t have everything.
We soon got a system going and made progress down the locks without holding the 2 boats behind us up. The wind, however, was causing issues and we were very glad to reach the bottom lock where we wished the other boat a pleasant journey (he was heading for Manchester). We moored up on our mooring, turned the engine off and sat down to lunch feeling a little worn out and windswept! We decided to wait until the following morning to fill up with diesel and went to the Nelson instead.
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