Not bad, Braunston.

 It has been another grand day, preceded by a beautiful sleep. It was so quiet and peaceful, and I had been a bit busy that I slept through despite saying I would check on the Northern Lights when I got up for the usuals, But as I didn't get up we didn't see them. We will see what happens tonight.

We set off around 09:30 and were soon passing Dunchurch Pools Marina and their service quay appeared to be busy.

There was a field of young calves looking so very cuter, and their mum's looking anxious. I think they are Red Angus cattle, but I may be wrong.

The berth outside Midland Chandlers at the junction was vacant so we pulled in and went along to buy some stuff before continuing up towards the locks. We stopped to top up with water as somebody was winding in  front of us. The pressure is so bad that it really wasn't worth it, other than we had a nice long chat with a guy and we were waiting for somebody to share the locks with. Everybody was winding or mooring, so eventually we gave it up as a bad job and headed to the locks. There were one or two mooring on the towpath down by the Boathouse pub, but  all the way up past the marina was full at lunchtime.

I don't remember getting such a good view of the pumping station before. I wonder if they have cleared so vegetation, or maybe we were just coming in the opposite direction! I love that they pot the date and company on it 'GUC 1897'.

There was a boat coming down so we had a bit more of a wait but still no company. The old chandlers is now a art supplies shop.

This little cottage, The Crooked Cottage, always reminds me of the third little pig that built his house of brick.

There was more waiting for boats coming down and then we spied a boat coming up astern of us. After a delay once again for down boats we entered the lock to wait for him. Unbeknown to us he was waiting for another who was going to join him, so eventually we went up on our own. The next lock gates had been left open for us but as we were rising up a couple of single handed boats just turned the lock on us. They were both elderly and not too steady on the pins so it took ages, causing a build up of up bound boats at the three locks below. If they had waited they would have had volunteer lock keepers to help them too. At the last lock we met a share boat coming down who admitted to Helen that he had read my blog, 'but not for ages!' I wasn't offended as I am always curious who reads it, and why. There are so many vloggers now, compared to bloggers, and they all seems to be trying to sell the idea that nobody has done it before. To be honest they seem to be moored up for most of the time, probably editing their footage! I forgot to mention that I took this photo as I don't remember seeing the iron work at the gate hinge being dated so recently before. I'm sure it has a proper name but I can't find a diagram with all the ground work bits and pieces on it.

Then there is Braunston Tunnel. We passed 5 boats as we passed through. I am not a fan of these LED flood lights that some put on the bow as they dazzle quite easily. I even met a boat at the wiggle and we all missed each other. I can't remember meeting so many boats in any tunnel we have passed through.

The mile post still peeping out of the lush green grass and wildflowers.

We didn't get too much further as we spied a likely spot before Bridge 7 and pulled in. The chairs were out for the first time this year I think and Helen caught up with a glass of wine whilst I did a bit of splicing. On the way up the locks I had noticed that the centre line 'snotter' was ready to part. We have a bit of sacrificial rope that has an eye on each end, one to hook over the cleat on the roof and one to loop the long centre line through. We called this a snotter when at sea, but I expect there are many names for it. It is just long enough to go from the centre of the boat to outside of the lead on the roof top edge. This means that this short length gets the wear and tear rather than the expensive long mooring rope. Mind you we have had the same ropes for 12 years and they are getting a bit 'thin' now. I made up two, one for each side whilst I was at it.

Before finishing I sanded and repainted another undercoat around the morse control, and cleaned and prepared the chimney area before giving it two coats of undercoat. The I got to sit down and actually had my shirt off too. Not too many folk about to startle though. With a nice glass of beer it was a lovely end to a nice day. We did really need to crack on a bit, but what the hell.