Fingers crossed for a Hurricane!

I was up early and got a cup of tea for us both and had a shower before setting off at 0800. The sun was periodically shining down and the country side looked lovely.

The view from our mooring of the night.

As I passed the line of moored boats at tick over a guy popped out onto deck and was putting on his boots. I asked him if he was setting off and he said he would in a minute or two so I said we would wait at the locks for him. I went quite slowly to give him time to catch up. It wasn't long before we arrived at Braunston Tunnel. There was nobody coming through so I could go straight down the middle as it is two way working. By the time I had been in a few minutes I could see the ligth behind  me so could speed up a bit.

The wooded east portal of Braunston Tunnel.

We arrived  at the locks together. It looked like a couple of boats  were heading down. Our lock buddy was a Willow Wren boat but the hirer had been hiring for 25 years. They were from Scarborough so we had a good chat about this and that. I made a very bad  mistake at the next lock as I thought the boats ahead of us had left  a gate open so I closed it and filled the lock. When half full I saw there was a boat coming up. I apologised for my mistake and hope I was forgiven.

The Willoow Wren boat looked very good and they told me that it is the most popular boat and there isn't a week hardly that it is  out on the cut. It was the same age as ours. I have 1100 hours on the engine and she had 9000.

Helen in front of the Lord Neslon that had been threatened with closure but has thankfully been saved. Unfortunately we wont have a chance of a stop over this time round.

As the gates of the bottom lock opened we were met  with this sight. Boats all over the cut. I'm not sure why some of them couldn't wait a little further down. All was negotiated with no trouble. 

We said Ta Ta to our lock buddies as they moored up and we took the turn down the Oxford Canal towards Wigrams Turn. I had not been able to fix the Hurricane heater so we took the opportunity  to call at Calcutt and see what the experts said. We got there just after their  lunch break and soon we had a nice many in a boiler suit looking at the system. They weren't able to fit me in for them to do any work  so I picked his brains and bought some antifreeze and set off back towards Rugby. We found  a nice spot and moored up about 1600. Straight away we started to  replace the coolant in the heating system. I followed the suggestion of not draining the system but pushing out the old coolant through the highest radiator bleed valve. It is taking a long time but I hope it works. It is recommended that it is  done every three years so it is ready for it. 

 This is the expansion tank in the warm cupboard and I have to keep the tank topped up to prevent it pulling air down. The blue is the colour of the new coolant.

This is the colour of the coolant coming out of the system.

Despite all the hassle the view from the window makes it all worth while.