Watford Locks

Had a very pleasant evening at Elkington moored between bridges 26 and 27 - see photo below. The wood next to our mooring is owned by the Woodland Trust and is a wonderful place to walk. Many of the trees are very old and the woodland floor is quite open so Spot loved it.

Evening moon over Elkington

Elkington - Tilly May by the left edge.

Due to heavy rain fall previous day, had to sit under umbrella through Crick Tunnel to prevent getting drenched from roof dripping.

We took our time moving to the top of the Watford Locks flight as we'd had a couple of boats go past us before we cast off so knew we could have a bit of a wait to traverse the flight. This flight is right next to Watford Gap Services so after all the quiet of Elkington the traffic noise appeared horrendous. Once at the top of the flight we went to find the Lock Keeper to book in, but didn't see much of a problem as there were no other boats waiting to go down. The chap told us he had 11 boats waiting to come up (had told Jan 7) and he was going to bring 6 up and then we could go down. Not a lot we could do but put the kettle on. After half an hour we had only seen 2 boats come up so we decided to go see what the problem was and give a hand. No lock keeper in sight and chaos on the locks. Lots of hire boats without much of an idea what to do. We set to to help move things along only to be told by the next lock keeper that they were bringing all 11 boats up before we could go down. They would not let us move down into the next pound ready for the staircase, said it was "too windy" although we felt it was such a waste of water.  Finally after two and a half hours we were at the bottom. I know these chaps are unpaid volunteers but in this case I am not sure that they helped at all.

Had a nice meal at the New Inn at Norton Junction.

Going through Braunston tunnel met a boat head on with a failed tunnel light - chap on the bow with a torch: felt sorry for him as same happened to us 2 years ago! Lots of traffic through Braunston flight.

Decided to call it a day between bridges 80 and 81 as only one other boat moored.  Just putting in pins when 4 boats came down and 3 up all passing us at the same time resulting in total chaos!!

Spot Alert & Ready It Move!

Rainbow from the side hatch