Dyno-Rod on steroids

We turned around the next morning, choosing quite unwittingly a time when the junction was rather busy, and boats were having to manoeuvre around each other as they approached the bridges from all three directions at once. It was fun!

We dawdled up to the locks...

and joined a holidaying couple on NB Lesley Ann, making our ascent pleasingly more sociable, and simpler.

Two locks from the top, there was a problem. A sizeable team from CRT were directing boats to moor in the pounds between the locks, all the way down the flight. Ahead of us, a number of people were looking over the bridge at something happening in the lock above us.

Our pound started to rise, then to overflow the gates behind us.

One of the RCR men explained. The conduit that allows water to be run into the lock above us from the one above it was blocked. Left like that, the whole flight would run dry. They were having to drain that pound in order to gain access to the conduit and unblock it.

I sat at the side with a cup of coffee and a book while Grace went up to take a look.

What she saw, she described as Dyno-Rod on steroids.

We were there for... two hours? Two and a half? I really don't know. I was pleased for our locking companions who'd left a day in hand to get to their hire base on the Market Harborough branch, but there were other hire-boaters waiting who were getting a bit anxious about the time. There were no excuses for Mr Grumpy, though, the boat-owner who seemed to think that the length of time the unblocking job was taking must have been down to the total incompetence of the CRT, and who made sure everyone else knew it. The poor fool.

They fixed it. The blockage had been caused by willow roots that had broken into the pipe and been filtering leaves and other detritus until it blocked the water entirely. Well done, CRT!

We parted company with Lesley Ann when we pulled over to moor just before Norton Junction.

 The peace was wonderful.

Friday morning was so quiet that it felt as though we were quite alone. The only boat to pass before we left our mooring was a canoe. We set off in a leisurely manner.

Left onto the Leicester Arm..

and towards Watford Locks.

We were asked to go up to the pound above the second lock, where we waited for - I don't know. An hour, ninety minutes maybe - while a number of boats came down.

Back at the marina, Grace had to battle against the wind as she drove Kantara into her berth. It was the hardest part of the whole trip!

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