Fending Off

Because we couldn't come up the locks yesterday to the water point at the top, we've been very short of cold water. We had plenty at 75° from cooling the engine but no cold to mix with it. So we all went without showers yesterday.

This morning we moved from the River Nene onto the Grand Union Canal. Progress was very slow as the boat got trapped in weed and weed got caught in the propeller and slowed it but eventually we reached the 17 locks, widely spaced at first then in a flight of 12. Getting through involved all eight of us: working the locks, running ahead to set the next one, or driving. At the top we ate lunch on the front deck, filled the cold water tanks then took turns to have celebratory showers.

The clouds got greyer, the others went inside the boat for a lesson or to prepare food and I took over the driving through small, soft showers of drizzle. I enjoyed seeing them spattering on the water up ahead of me before we got to them.

We moored for the night at Weedon Bec, and visited the imposing set of huge red-brick storehouses, once the home of a Napoleonic-war-era military ordnance depot, now the impressive home of several small businesses.