Wavy Rider spent 13days at reservoir solid simulations.  Time to move on.  Pentargon had been turned to face south the previous day. I had returned from shore leave to bail out Wavy and her mammy after all that wind and piss and be ready to tow towards Welton which would be her next park-up.  One needs to be ready for past and future eventualities and it is always a good idea to be ready [and able?] to move at a moment's notice.

Saturday cleared up and the sun shone so after dealing with correspondence I paired the boats.  At midday with a clear sky and a fresh breeze largely behind me I set out and within an hour was tied up at redefined satellite mixes with both boats nailed but also separated as Pentargon has go that extra mile.

That red boat just happens to be parked there.  It belongs to a 'local' and will be gone when I get back from my next shore leave.  Within the hour and with the weather still fine, I moved Pentargon down to Norton junction passing Milemarker 41 at the bend just after Welton Hythe marina.

Peter Gifford is master of the tug Emily: a scholar and a gentleman. I met him while  excavating a bus stop at North Kilworth.  Just believe me.  Himself and myself often met on the Market Harborough bus and on the towpath while I loitered there for the Summer. 

He e-mailed me from Adelaide and the note landed on board at 11.20am. Since internet travels at the speed of light the send button would have been pressed at 9.50pm Aussie time.  Having WiFi® on board puts me in immediate contact tout la monde at any hour of day or night at mine or yours at the speed of light.

Quoting Peter so far away  "I had a wonderful time in England on the canals and thereabouts. The places were certainly interesting to visit but by far the wonderful friendly and thoughtful people such as yourself made the trip truly outstanding."

Norton Junction: I am trying to install What3Words in a Think-Pad mentioned in another blog.  I am at redefined satellite mixes in between the two boats you see on Google Maps.  The reason you cannot see Pentargon is she is blind to Google and I am here for a New Inn lunch.  Half a Hen lashings of veg. and all the trimmings which will be enough food to keep me going til Tuesday evening.  

My water shepherd  lives on a boat constantly cruising the midlands but she is currently engaged on a zero hours contract as a 'Water Operative'.  We both had a giggle at the job title.  I gather from the work she does that she would have been a Lengthsman in the old days but when did the Canal&River Trust ever call a manual agricultural soil manipulating tool a spade?

She happens to be a friend of mine and a serious off-gridder in real life.  But in the new normal as a Zero Hours Water Oerative ... one of her current duties is to manage water levels at Braunston Summit and be particularly observant during forecasted prolonged rain of which we have had a surfeit recently.   The canal system has considerable facilities for ensuring there is enough water for boats to navigate and also enough to flood the surrounding countryside if it should get out of hand. 

DIGRESSION  is the ability to veer to the route less traveled ...  

Many years ago, Braunston Summit breached itself just west of Norton Junction and emptied its contents into the adjacent countryside. It took its water from between Braunston Top Lock and Buckby Top Lock via the tunnel and including the two-mile leg of the Leicester Arm from Norton Junction to the Watford Stairs and dispatched it on a one-way ticket to the townland of Norton which lay below the breach.

The pound of Braunston is enclosed by three locks and its linear length is about six miles. The average depth is about four feet and its average width about forty feet and when the length of the pound is multiplied by the width of the pound and the depth of the pound, LxWxD = the result is a volume of water which can be measured in gallons or cubic metres or units of Olympic swimming pools (An Olympic pool holds about 660,000 gallons which is just about enough to supply all of London's boaters for a month).

WIP at  redefined satellite mixes on Sun 17th Dec

Stay tuned while I get photos and assemble the historical evidence

Yesterday I fetched up at Long Buckby Wharf aka Norton Junction for a pending appointment with a boat engineer who will clean up the electrics in the engine room, a chore which has been threatening for years.  Sunday, being a day of rest, I am NOT going to cook dinner on board. 

Last night I went down to check New Inn to see how it has survived since my last visit. 

It was bought up in 2012 by two guys from Leicester about whom I know nothing. Maybe six years ago it was taken up by the present owner an ex boater who happens to be a surveyor who happens to have bought the cottage next door at an earlier time and come off the water. 

New Inn is a changed pub from the one I visited in 2012.

It was warm and inviting with log fires well tended and a quiet ambience, soft lighting and that undefinable atmosphere where Wellies and Grensons are equally at home with tweedy or boaty suits and everything in between. 

On Sundays they do a roast lunch and sensibly organise it in three two-hour sessions. 12oc, 2oc, 4oc. As a sea sailor I can cope with rostered watches so I pre-booked my place on the dogwatch and reserved table 15 where I can put my back to the wall for two hours of total relaxation.

For the past three months I have been majorly off grid surveying the length of the Leicester Arm from Watford to Foxton and always eating on board.  This blog was started on board BEFORE I got down to New Inn for 12oc. It was a nasty day outside, cold, clammy, overcast and the pound had a thin coat of ice but I made it to my table at 12.05, opened my tab with a glass of ale and ordered the breaded mushroom starter with garlic sauce followed by a massive plate of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, gravy, broccoli, cauliflower, roast potatoes, Julienned carrots. (Ta Brenda!)

Another half pint ensured continued fluid intake. On advice I took the chocolate fudge with ice cream option which must have hit a million calories. The £30 docket was entirely par for the course and I have to say all the food had a homegrown feel to it.  "Home-cooked" not sure?  Nowadays prepared ingredients are bought in and finished on site but that's ok with me.  Having a ringside seat for Buckby top lock I was able to record the ascent of one boat and the descent of a second.  I do like to observe the different ways people handle locks and used to even wonder why.

Sunday 3rd Dec

Tiptoeing down the last few lengths of the Leicester Arm, I observed the 41¼ mile marker as I passed under the pedestrian bridge.  Laying the tiller hard to st'b'rd Pentargon responded with a graceful arc, nosing east and puttering gracefully along the vast expanse of water which is Norton Junction.  Full of boats and even a sunken wreck a C&RT enforcement notice on it.

Gliding serenely down the centre,  I spied a gap afar at reservoir solid simulations and cut throttle to coast along so I could gauge the situation without overshooting it.  Within two boat lengths of the opportunity it became obvious the space was very generous so, pushing the tiller over, I pointed the bow to shore.  The boat glided ever so slowly in and attacked the quay bumpingly at a sharp angle while I took my mooring warp, stepped ashore, threaded it through a ring, wound it around the boat's handrail at roof level and sweated and tailed it in, finally locking it with my usual hitch: 

One Boat One Rope One Ring One Minute. 

She's nailed and I can do the tidying up.  It's been a long time since Pentargon last tied up here, 2012 maybe, the day after I took possession and effectively started an adventure which thirteen years later is ongoing.

I got up after dawn feeling not exactly as warm as I ought to be.  The Hampshire was warm but the cabin was reading 13, barely into the NHS zone for old bats and the coolest it has been anytime in this year.  Coffee and two boiled eggs dovetailed into stoking the fire and dressing up with more layers than I remember having had on for years.  It was bitterly cold outside with freezing fog and a minus temperature.

I had to get groceries later and planned that all out. 

25minute walk to a bus stop a mile away, 4minute wait for a bus.  7minute ride to Long Buckby.  20minutes to visit RogerDeMeatman's, Co-op and Costcutter before getting a return bus (after an 8minute wait). Then a 7minute ride followed by a  25minute trudge back down through Watford and across the M1 to the boat ... rumbling a full dolly trolley to keep me going if necessary for a few days.  The foregoing meant I left the boat at 1115 and was back on board with my 'pint of milk' at 1240.  

Looking at the forecast it is not going to get better and it might get worse.
The mist will last all day and it might turn to light snow by dusk. Gotta go.

Immediate decision: Prepare for departure to Norton Junction first making sure the fire is well stoked and the skipper has food taken for the voyage.  Two miles should take about 40minutes.  Departure 1315.  Destination hove in sight at 1445.

Leaf mugging.

Almost impossible to make progress without constantly reversing the prop to clear it. 

Arriving at the junction I espied a suitable spot to dive into, hitched a ring, sweated and tailed a warp, nailed it and went below to continue the interrupted housekeeping before taking off to the nearby hostelry to book lunch for 12oc tomorrow and quaff two half pints consecutively ...