Early start with the Filling Station prayer meeting immediately followed by us moving the boat towards Stoke Bruerne and the seven locks where, a passerby told us, we could buy a bacon butty and a cup of tea at the top of the flight! That was incentive enough for R as I never buy him bacon! The scenery was fairly bland and flat for the two hours it took to arrive at the lock flight and we are officially now in the Midlands. Some of the seven locks were set to go, others looked like they had a waterfall cascading over the top, but we are obviously much more proficient than on our way down 5 months ago, as we did the flight with relative ease. The only disappointment being the lack of bacon butty at the top – the cafe was closed due to covid so we had to make do with a cup of coffee and a homemade wrap on the boat!
Emerging into daylight once again, we looked to moor up, hopefully with internet coverage as I wanted to join my Friday afternoon Zoom. The first stop was not promising but the signal looked stronger fifty yards further along so we advsnced the boat manually. I immediately enjoyed a deep hot bath – always the best time to do so, whilst the water is still hot from the engine. Deciding to wash all my clothes I just donned a warm jumper and kept my towel wrapped around my middle. Realising the Zoom call was starting I tried to join, only to be frustrated by lack of signal inside the boat itself. Donning socks and slippers and wrapping a blanket and shawl around me I sat on the bow and got connected. R meanwhile decided to move the boat along the towpath in the hopes that we might achieve a better signal and thus I could sit inside. Suddenly a shout alerted me that he needed help. The stern had drifted towards the middle of the canal and he needed me to walk along the outside edge, grab the midrope, jump back ashore and pull the boat back towards the path. In normal circumstances all very straightforward. Bear in mind my inappropriate open toed slippers and even more inappropriate lack of clothing! Luckily this towpath appears to have little passing traffic. A sudden gust of wind and a loosing of my towel could have been very embarrassing indeed! As it was, although the signal improved slightly, it was not significant! I logged onto EE and discovered the postcode here has intermittent good WiFi, inside of buildings. A mile up the road, the site of another marina (hence I can find the postcode) the WiFi looks to be far more stable so I think we will go there tomorrow. It seems a bit of a shame to link our mooring to the connectivity of the Internet and just goes to show how reliant we are on strong Internet connection for keeping in touch with others. I wonder if this would have been the case if our trip had not coincided with two lockdowns, resulting in the sad inability to see any family or friends. Even though we planned to go on the narrowboat for a few months, it was never with the intention of not going home or not travelling to family events, such as weddings and birthday parties. We had hoped also that we would have many visitors join us on the boat. As it is, R and I can just about count on one hand the loved ones we have seen since October. I am not complaining as I realise we are not alone in this and my heart goes out even more to those who have not even shared lockdown with one other person. It is just that I think it has made contact with family and friends more important to us than it would have done if we had been occupied with meeting new people, popping into pubs, trying out different churches every Sunday and entertaining visitors to the boat.
Next on the agenda was the mile long Blisworth tunnel. When we last came through it I all but panicked on entering the tunnel and R had to steer it through. This time I was at the helm the entire way and only had one slight mishap when a deluge of water fell from a vent and I tried to avoid it, sending the boat slightly off course, thus bumping one of the sides. Once I had righted it we went through without any other hiccups and I really felt I had achieved something. Reminded me of our first ever mile long tunnel a decade ago when we bounced from side to side along the length of the boat from one end of the tunnel to the other!
NarrowboatTLC 