Up, Up and moor up.

Hi folks.

Is now at the top of Foxton locks, 1 miles, 10 locks, 1hr 30mins.

Having been awake since 6am, Keith and I enjoyed an early cuppa in bed, before getting up and preparing Hadar for the off. The plan was to get up the locks early, which also seemed to be the plan of others, because as we arrived at the lock, there was a boat already going into the bottom lock. So having sat Hadar on the gates, I walked up to find the lock keeper. He informed me that we were 4th in the queue, which was a surprize to me because there was no one waiting at the bottom. Apparently I was passed by a gentleman running up the towpath, who was going up the flight third, if he was quick enough to get rid of his rubbish. Flippin cheek.
As it actually turned out, the boat in second place, said that we should go before them, as it would be easier. Which was really very nice of them. So thank you to the crew of Mutley. They very kindly helped me do the first few locks, which gave us a chance to have a nice chat. It turned out that they are good friends of Jo and John on Acen, who we also have go to know, since being in Market Harborough Basin. So we had a nice quiet run up through Foxton locks. Once above the locks Keith moved some more coal around in the hold to get the bow up a bit, he also restacked all the toilet blue and kindling. Hold looks all neat and tidy now. I mopped out the front locker, the gates at Foxton are leaking lots, and with such force it bounced off the fore deck and up under the hatch. There was a good inch of water in the locker. I have got most of it out, but as I am trying not to overdo it with my shoulder, I did not get it completely dry.
We have enjoyed a chat with other boaters moored near us and had our lunch. We are now watching the Germany v Serbia World Cup match on a digital signal, so all is good with our world today.

Time to say goodbye

Thursday 23rd October.

Stone to Burston. 3.6 miles and 5 locks.

Sadly our time back in Stone has come to an end. Our new battery arrived yesterday, and Keith immediately fitted it.
Both Keith and I were awake early this morning, possibly through excitement, as we knew today was the day we would be making a move south. So we were up early. I made us porridge for breakfast, a nice warming start to the day, along with a cup of tea. Paddy enjoyed his last walk in Stone for a year. Keith and I had to get some coal ready for two coal deliveries on the way down to Star Lock. After breakfast we popped around to Roger's Boatyard to say our goodbye's to Roger and Tina, who were enjoying their morning coffee, before the days work begins. We also got to say cheerio to Nigel on N.B EnSeaBee and Tina's husband Rob who was working from home. It is always sad to say goodbye, but we will be back next September like bad pennies LOL. Having done the farewell's we dropped off coal from the bow of Hadar to Sharon and Ian on N.B The Mutley Crew and said cheerio for now. It is kind of odd because people have been wishing us a Happy Christmas arghhhhhhh, what a thought, it is not that far away. We then made a delivery to N.B Cedar who are having boat problems and are moored below Newcastle Road lock at Stone Boat Building, whilst there we collected a new gas bottle and said our goodbyes to Kath. We wish the Denny's onboard Cedar well, and hope they will soon be on their way. Already it seemed like we had done a day's work, and we still had the food shopping to do. Luckily we managed to get a mooring on the 12 hour Crown Car Park moorings. It has been full of boats for the last few weeks, all of them over staying their welcome. So having moored up we headed off to Morrison's for a large food shop. The supermarket was packed. I wondered if something was going on that no one had told us about. Still we managed to finally make it through the check out and back to the boat. Before putting the shopping away, we went down through Star Lock to take on some water. Whilst Keith kept an eye on that procedure. I put the shopping away, made us some lunch and a coffee, which we would have on the move. Because we have sold almost all of the coal onboard, Hadar is sitting really high out of the water at the moment, with the gusty winds she is likely to move around a lot on the water, so filling her water tank will certainly help to a degree, as it has been almost three weeks since we filled her up. We were soon on our way to Aston Lock, where we sold another bag of coal to a lovely lad named Martin, we wished him well and set off to our over night mooring at Burston. Having moored up Keith did our canal cruising Log and worked out that so far we have cruised 1058 miles and done 755 locks since we set off in January. It really does not feel that much if I am honest. We are now both so looking forward to seeing Autumn and the Winter in the full. I will certainly be taking lots of photographs. So tomorrow we will be making for Great Haywood and a weekend mooring. See you next week as we head South to pick up coal.