Captains Blog Day 2

We traversed the Newbold tunnel around 11:30ish. The tunnel, usually resplendent with light, was eerily dark as the majority of the luminaires were not working. Onwards to the locks at Hillmorton where a text message of warning was received from the admiral! The crew were ably assisted through the bottom lock by a fine membWell it's the end of day 2. After an uneventful (read: nobody was kept awake by anyones snoring 😴), the crew awoke early. 7:05 and the first round of teas were supped, chef Matt deposited a quarter of a pig in the pan and rustled up a fantastic full English, including black pudding and fried slice!

We pushed off at 9:30am and meandered through the wild rhubarb forests of Ansty on towards Hillmorton Locks. Dissent and grumblings amongst the crew as it became apparent Matt had forgotten to purchase any pork pie!! He was lashed & thrown in the brig for 20 minutes or so to think about what he'd done!

er of the Canal & River Trusts volunteer service. The locks passed incident free and the decision was made to motor on til lunch was ready.

Dave took the tiller as we travelled on, we came across a small day boat meandering across the cut as if in some distress. We decided to follow on at a safe distance to assess the level of severity of the vessels plight. It became apparent that the crew were inexperienced and also high on the spirit of occasion as a birthday was being celebrated. We negotiated passage around and wished all the ladies aboard bon chance and went on our way. Said group passed is twice (once one way & after turning) whilst we were moored taking lunch. They seemed to have got the hang of things much better in their return pass.

Windy grey weather accompanied us all the way to Braunston turn where we all crossed on to previously uncharted (well uncharted for any of us) waters, The Grand Union Canal! We moored up, discussed the plan of attack for tomorrow, our first proper "busy day", 18 miles & 20 locks!!

So far we have covered about 28 miles in around 10 hours of boating. But this is only the beginning.....