Two bumps in one day !!!

On Friday we pulled pins just after 10 o'clock and headed south towards Crick and with good warm weather it was an absolute pleasure to be cruising.

                                                                              Everywhere you look there are fields of yellow Oil seed .

                                                                              I wonder where Wonderland is on the canal system ?

We decided to keep going through the wet Crick tunnel and then picked up this mooring about a mile before Watford locks. It is very close to the M1 Motorway and you get a constant drone of traffic noise but after a few glasses of the red stuff it slowly falls silent. With the sun shinning it wasn't long before it was out with the chairs and a couple of hours sat in the sun…Just the ticket.

On Saturday morning as Carolyn was walking the dogs a speeding boat came down the cut and smashed into the side of us. We were moored on a straight bit of canal  It wasn't just a light hit . I went out to the front of the boat and the guy in the other boat just waved and smiled as he weaved from side to side down the canal. I'm not sure if he had a problem with his steering or if he was just pi$$ed. Any way he caught the rubbing strake and took off my nice new blacking. I'm not a happy bunny!

                                                             A proud Mother with 10 Ducklings. Lets hope most of them survive.

      We pulled pins at 10.30 on Saturday and headed for the services at the top of Watford locks… Above Inca on the services with overflowing bins.

                                                                                  OOPS !!! This hire boat in front of us got it a bit wrong.

                                                                                     Dropping down the Watford staircase locks.

                           Another helpful volunteer lockie with his hands in his pockets watching the world go by…..”Put your back into Carolyn”

                       As one of the locks emptied this little chap got stuck on the cill behind us. We managed to help him off and back into the water.

Our mooring for Saturday is on the Leicester section of the Grand union canal at Norton junction . Shortly after mooring on the 14 day moorings a hire boat decided to pull in behind us and moor. Only problem was he didn't bother to stop and went straight into the back of us. So that's twice in one day. I managed to keep my calm but i don't know how much longer i can hold my temper if idiots keep hitting us. And as for the saying that Narrowboating is a contact sport what a load of bollocks that is. It is not a sport that we want to participate in. Accidents do happen but a lot of the time it is just carelessness and poor boat handling…….  Rant over…..for now ..

We will spend Sunday here and then go through Braunston tunnel and then drop down Braunston locks and pick up a mooring in the village for Monday night.

                                                                                  Happy Days

PS    The bins are overflowing at Norton junction as well . I wonder if CaRT have paid their rubbish bill ?