Blisworth. Staying Put.

Well, the promised wind arrived with a vengeance last night.

We were kept awake for quite a while by little wavelets slapping onto the hull. This sounded like water running in the bilges.

As we have not had this happen before there was a certain amount of concern for a while aboard Ubique!

All was well though and as it is still blowing as hard we are not moving, no,no, no.

On our way here yesterday we came across this BW crew chopping trees, great! we thought, free logs.
Not for us though, another boat had just snaffled them all, he had nothing left other than a few twigs. Humph!





More imports coming to the canals. It seems odd that to build them out East and then ship them over here, is cheaper than to build them here in the first place. These are not small items that you can chuck in a van, the transport costs alone must be huge.





A "Broads Cruiser" looking strangely out of place here on the canal. They are nearly twice the width of the Narrowboats.
This will be the first season for a very long time that we will not be hiring one of those for a week. No need to now.
Check out that wood on the roof, more chainsawing coming up.



Should the wind drop a bit we will be off back through the Blisworth shower tube as we like to call it.


Until next time.........................

Whilton to Blisworth.

Last night we read through our respective Blogs/Logs (D keeps a written one) and thought we would recreate our original trip on Ubique which took us to the mouth of the Blisworth tunnel.

Leaving Whilton with this veritable waterfall cascading over the gates of the bottom lock,





we were soon back in "canal country".

Albeit chilly today we were sheltered from most of the wind by an abundance of trees, this lead to a very pleasant days chug indeed. Combining that with some (lots of) wood collecting, today was a good day, a very good day.





This tree was alight in the autumn sun, the colours of these things at this time of year are spectacular to say the least.





Colours of a different sort, these four people (cant tell if male or female) were each painting a leg of this pylon.
Oh that must have been cold up there in the wind, we think they started at the top and are painting it grey, they could just have easily started at the bottom and are painting it brown...ish.
Next time through here will tell.





Another one for my list of odd boat names.


May Contain Nuts.....Love it!!



Until next time.......................

Buckby Top Lock to Whilton Marina. 7 Locks.

This is almost like a homecoming, back to the marina where it all started for us.

It was a very wet, windy and overcast morning that we set off into.

If we had not needed to refill the water tank there would have been every chance of another day spent alongside.

The rain did ease off fairly quickly though, just leaving the wind to give me some gyp. Ubique has been at a forty five degree angle as she crabbed her way along the canal for most of today.

Entering the locks has been more like making a successful landing than a good bit of boat handling.

The Buckby end of this flight has some very big and heavy gates to contend with.



Especially the bottom sets, even the balance beam is dwarfing D.





A moment of quiet contemplation.

This was just before, "I say dear, would you mind awfully opening the gate?" (or words to that effect) came wafting up from the bottom of the lock.

This part of the canal is very deceptive, all sugar and spice but on one side runs the M1 motorway and on the other a very busy high speed rail link. The noise!!




Very novel set of patio furniture here. Mr DIY has been active but it works well.






Moving ever closer along tree lined avenues, until







the last lock was in sight. Whilton!!

This was the first lock D had ever seen, and at the time was a tad nervy at having to operate them.

There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then (did I just say that?) now she loves them and can put a lot of people to shame when it comes to working through.

Off to the Chandlers (Toy shop) now.



Until next time............................................