Perfect Harmony

Perfect Harmony
Moored at Huntingdon

Friday 2 June 2017

Friday 2nd June '17

Happy Birthday Michelle, in case you read this!

We started early today in brilliant sunshine. I forgot to say yesterday that I'd put some washing out and at one point a family went past and the young girl with them (about 9ish at a guess) pointed and said "How curious, a boat with a washing line!" I was so delighted at her reaction, unfortunately I was inside and unable to respond, but it made me chuckle.

Anyway. back to today. We spotted some new moorings that looked really good (for the Oxford)....


...then as we went past we realised that they didn't have any form of mooring ring or piling and then I noticed....


...huge rocks just under the new concrete bags! maybe they aren't wanting people to moor there after all! When we got around the corner we realised that this was actually just on the approach to  Rugby. I was glad that I'd got our few groceries yesterday as there weren't any moorings to be had in the usual places to get to the Tesco so we'd have been without fruit and bread!


Hilmorton Locks, which are duplicated, which means that there are two sets of locks next to each other. I think that these used to be more common than they are now, the ones on the Trent and Mersey at Heartbreak Hill used to be like this but now there are only a few of them left. We'd been following another boat that we went up pretty much in tandem with, and John got speaking to the chap who turned out to be from Sherborne, about 12 miles away from where we used to live at West Stour in Dorset! We both were flying the Dorset flag which was the starting point of their conversation.


The gates on the middle locks have little 'quotation' on them. I couldn't get the other one as the boat was very selfishly in the way, but I think it was something about having to wait a while.


A bit unprepossessing from the canal, but this is the Old Royal Oak at Hilmorton, where we have met both sons with their families a couple of times. It doesn't open until 12.00 noon, and it was about 11.30 when I took the photo which hopefully explains why it looks a bit empty.


A rather nice dovecote......


.....and all the doves on the nearby roof! coo....



We were cruising past Barby moorings, looking to see if we could see the mooring that we'd enquired after a couple of years ago when we went past and were quoted £96,000 (no electric or anything apart from water and lots of grass). There's a bit of a commotion and I look down to see a duck trying to take off between the boat and the bank. I checked to see what Paddy was doing and he'd gone in! I yelled at John who reversed, which scared me as I was worried about the propeller, and called a very scared and panicky little dog. Eventually he came close enough for me to get hold of his handle on his life-jacket and pull him out. Here he is wrapped in his doggy bag and feeling very sorry for himself. He was shaking for a good while afterwards and we quite subdued for most of the rest of the journey. Strangely we didn't see the mooring!


Unfortunately I didn't have the zoom lens handy but this sign says 'Caution, men in water.' Honestly it really did! We didn't see any - and to our knowledge we didn't run through any of them either! To be fair there wasn't a sign in the other direction, yer 'onour.


Finally in the distance we see the spire of Braunston Church. We still had quite a way to go and found some good moorings on pilings before we got there. Just as well that we did because a hire boat went past so fast that even with proper piling pins (look a bit like a safety pin that hooks through the piling, very secure) they managed to pull the ropes loose enough to move us about a yard further on and John had to re-tie both sets of ropes.

After lunch we walked into Braunston as I wanted to get up to date Pearson's Guides and John wanted to go to the pub. We were sat outside, watching the world go by when it suddenly started raining. Looking at the sky it wasn't going to stop any time soon, so we walked back though the rain, past 'Sarah' the boat that went past fast. I noticed how badly they were tied up and had to resist the temptation to 'accidentally' knock the rope off the pin. One thing's for certain and that is that if anyone went past them at the speed that they'd been going, they would DEFINITELY have been set adrift.

The rain eased up but when I took Paddy out for his pre-tea walk, I couldn't believe how many nasty black slugs had emerged. Hopefully there are lots of hedgehogs around as I know they eat them!

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