Welton Hythe marina to bridge 45 Leicester Arm
Saturday 18th August (cont)
Today, as I said, we are off to Crick for some much needed
shopping. It wasn’t only the rain that put us off going yesterday it was also
the amount of boats that passed us going in the same direction. Not knowing how
many of them would stop at Crick, we didn’t want to take the chance of missing
out and having to go straight through. By leaving here early this morning, by
the time we have passed through the locks, some boats would have vacated their
moorings, thus giving us some space.
We are still looking for suitable permanent moorings,
preferably online and with water and electricity. Personally, I would still
like to investigate Blackthorn Lake on the River Nene but, as I said before, to
do so now would be rather expensive. The manager of the place emailed me
yesterday and advised me that, for £412 we could get a 6 months River Licence,
which would not be a bad idea because, if we were to take up moorings at
Blackthorn, when it comes to renewing our licence next April, we could get a
Gold one, which allows full use of rivers and canals.
Unfortunately, what with the expense of hull blacking before
we left Mercia, not to forget the cost of putting the car through its MOT, we
haven’t been exactly flush with cash. Also, our heater still needs servicing
and will cost about £200 or so.
So, having already explained to Clive of Blackthorn Lake,
that we are unable to consider taking a look right now, we’ll have to see if
they have any vacancies there next year. Meanwhile, we’ll head through Crick
and on to Welford and Market Harborough and see what we can find down there.
Sunday 18th August
It was only a little over four miles to Crick but, with
seven locks in between and with a lock keeper controlling movement through the
three staircase locks, this short journey took over three hours. We also had
the two-way tunnel to contend with, and that’s something we hadn’t anticipated
as we actually thought that, with the locks being singles, the tunnel would be
as well. Still, we managed to pass two other boats without incident and easily
found a space for mooring soon afterwards.
The Co-op shop at Crick is about half a mile away and, since
the two nearest pubs are at the same cross roads, that means over half a mile
to walk for our Sunday drink. Wifey has rather taken to cider these days,
rather than soft drink or coffee. Thankfully she limits herself to just a half
and prefers Thatcher’s or some other little know cider, over the usual
Strongbow.
More problems with this blasted laptop, not too serious, but
annoying all the same. I switched on yesterday afternoon and was pleased to
note a good Internet signal, which was more than could be said for the mobile,
Emergency Calls Only!
Anyway, having opened Outlook to check emails, it came up as
an error and couldn’t download them. So, as I usually do in the circumstances,
I closed Outlook and tried again, but still no luck. So, more in hope than
expectation I tried re-booting the laptop, which is when the fun began, as the
damned thing wouldn’t star and just looked at me with a black face.
Now, I don’t know what you would do in such a situation, but
I’m afraid the only thing I could think to do was hit the Off button, after
which I tried to switch on again, at which point another, unfamiliar error
message came up. This one asked me if I would like to start as normal or run a
test to see what caused the inability to start and this option really gave me a
pain in the nether regions.
This operation was taking so long that, in absolute
frustration I tried to cancel it. My laptop had other ideas, telling me the
operation could not be cancelled. Eventually this operation stopped, but with
nothing being done to correct the problem. It seems to me that, since the
laptop’s internal workings couldn’t cure the problem but left me with a working
laptop, then there probably wasn’t a problem to start with.
So, after more than half an hour of frustration, I had my
laptop back in, what seems to be, full working order.
Prior to all this Wifey remembered the existence of a Garden
Centre nearby and she remembered this from the days when we were looking to buy
a boat, which was back in 2005. (I really do wish I had such a memory). So, off
we trotted to said Garden Centre which, I’m happy to report, was a darned sight
nearer than the Co-op and pubs.
Sadly, said Garden Centre didn’t have much with which to
tempt her to part with much cash, so we came away with a few boxes of Pansies
and Violas, which she immediately transferred to her roof top boxes, whilst I
did battle with the laptop.
All’s well that ends well and the rest of the day poodled
along quite happily. Indeed, there were so many boats coming up from the
tunnel, that most of them didn’t have a hope of finding a mooring spot here.
Monday 19th August
And so another week begins. So far it’s looking pretty good.
We’ve started with a fine morning and, according to those in the know, we’re in
for a mixed bag of weather.
We’ll be leaving Crick this morning and will be looking to
stop about half way between here and the Welford arm where I hope to get this
oil and filter change done.
Yesterday, as usual, we spent our lunchtime at a pub, this
time the Red Lion which lies about half a mile from the canal. Actually there’s
a restaurant/bar by the side of the canal, called The Moorings but it’s the
description of ‘restaurant/bar’ that puts us off. It’s not a pub is it?
The Red Lion though is very good as local pubs go. It’s
obviously a very popular venue on Sundays, because well before 1 pm the place
was almost full. It’s pretty big inside and there seemed to be more than enough
staff around, so no hanging about to be served………
Wednesday 21st August
……. unlike the Wharf Inn at Welford, which we called into on
our way back from the local shop, I’ll tell you about that in a minute.
On Monday we travelled about six miles and moored up in the
wilds of Leicestershire and simply chilled out for the day, although we did
have a bit of a scare with the electrics. We had tied up and Sheila took Rusty
out, asking me to leave the engine running so that she could do some washing.
When she eventually returned from walking Rusty, she told me that the indicator
that tells her there’s power to the washing machine, wasn’t lit. So, after
checking to see if the TV was working, we realised that we had no mains power.
Bearing in mind that we had the Inverter/Charger switched on
whilst travelling in order to charge up the laptop, this seemed rather odd. So,
after checking the fuse in the aforementioned indicator and dropping the front
panel down on I/C and checking the fuse there, panic set in!
Of course it wasn’t necessary to call Andy and Sandy,
neither of whom answered because they were cruising and had their phones
switched off, but I called and left a message anyway, and then returned to the
I/C, which is when we noticed that the safety trip had, well, tripped and
simply needed re-setting. After replacing the I/C front panel and piling
everything back in the cupboard, we felt that we deserved a cup of coffee.
Panic over, followed by another call to Andy, who still didn’t answer, although
he did phone later. He’s a good lad is Andy.
Now, the Wharf Inn at Welford, which we chugged along to
yesterday.
The local shop in this village is up a long and pretty steep
hill and, on a warm day is a pretty uncomfortable slog. The shop itself, which
is a Post Office cum convenience store, is undergoing some major alterations
and, apart from the daily paper, they didn’t have anything else that we needed.
Anyway, since the Wharf Inn is just at the end of this arm
of the Leicester Arm of the GUC, and since I was feeling in need of some
sherbet, we decided to call in for a drink or three. As our bad luck would have
it, the lone bar lady was serving a shipping order to a couple of gents who
were loading a tray to take to the garden.
After waiting for those people to be served and thinking we
might be next, this lone bar person totally ignored us and turned to the two
lads sitting at the bar, both of which already had drinks in front of them.
Having totally ignored us since we walked in, not even deigning to notice we
were in fact there, I thought that the least she could have done was apologise
for the delay while she took their order for food. But, since she still blanked
us out, I gave Sheila a nudge and we voted with our feet.
It’s true to say that I’m not the most patient man in the
world, but I do hate to be ignored, and I also hate being asked to form a
queue. Of course, having walked out in high dudgeon, Wifey turned to me and
said, “I don’t think we were that impressed with the place the last time we
came here”. Hm, now she tells me!
The Welford Arm of the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union
Canal, is a mess. There’s no other way to describe it. Along the whole of its
1½ mile length are only a couple of places to moor up, and those are
overshadowed by trees, making them dark and dismal. The rest is overgrown with
weeds and reeds; must keep the wildlife happy! The 48 hour moorings outside the
marina, are just as bad and, if you moor there you are obliged to use the
footpath around the inside of the marina if you want to get to the town or that
pub as the towpath is blocked.
Fortunately the moorings at the very end of the arm, are
pretty wide open, so that’s where we stopped, which was at about 11.15.
However, having then decided that we don’t particularly like that stretch of
canal, we upped sticks and returned to the main Leicester arm for the rest of
the day.
Today, after filling up with diesel at the nearby boatyard,
we’ll head off to the top of Foxton Locks and I will, quite possibly enjoy that
missed pint of yesterday, at one of the two pubs there.
Meanwhile, have a great day and enjoy the upcoming Bank
Holiday.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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