CRICK TO Mkt HARBOROUGH

TINA, ANDY & JOHN

FOXTON STAIRCASE FLIGHT OF LOCKS

MUM & DAD OUT WITH THE KIDS
Mkt. HARBOROUGH BASIN

John & i left crick at 8am on wednesday after using the water point, rubbish & elsan facilities ahead of us 16 lock free miles to foxton locks. Our final destination being Mkt. Harborough as i have arranged for a lady,BECCY, to signwrite the boat. I met Beccy at the crick show and saw some of her work and felt confident she will do a nice job on the boat. Andy & Tina who i have been moored with at crick had left the day before as they are booked in at Debdale wharf to have their boat blacked and were worried about getting through foxton flight as after crick show there can be very long delays. We came across them some 5 miles out of crick and it was a good excuse to stop for a cuppa and a chat. As there boat was not due out for blacking till monday we teamed up to foxton and stopped a couple more times taking it in turn to play host for tea and cake. So three boats en route to foxton, got ourselves a convoy. On route i stopped at North Kilworth to re-fuel and took on 132 litres at54p(how does that compare with road prices) . On we go through Husbands Bosworth tunel(1166yds long) arriving at Foxton locks at about 3pm. We contacted the lockeeper as you cannot enter the flight unless he says so and he said we would have a couple of hours to wait, we had 2 boats in front of us and he had 2 waiting to come up. So a stroll around the locks and more tea soon passed the time. Also gave me time to look at my central heating boiler that refused to start at 6am this morning so i could shower it was to early to run the engine for hot water. Had a prod about and it seems to have been sooted up and now works fine but as i have a tank of really hot water from all day cruising it won`t be needed at the moment. Last entry into the locks was 6.15 but the lockie assured us we would be in before this and true to his word in we went one by one at about 5.15. I was last of our convoy and the others were waiting at the bottom and we all moored in the Mkt. Harborough arm for the night and retired to the pub. Thursday morning and setting off at about 11am we cruised for a couple of hours into the basin at M. Har. and tied up on the 48 hr moorings. We walked down to the Brit. Waterways office and i booked a basin mooring for friday morning after speaking to beccy about the signwriting. As Andy & Tina are walking towards me i now am going to the pub.