Our lazy start at about 10am was not good. Lots of hire boats had already gone past us and we had to follow one learner at a very pedestrian pace to the start of the Napton locks. Normally it would take Barbara (and Charlie piloting the boat) about 10 minutes to work us through a narrow lock such as Napton Bottom Lock, but it took at least 20 minutes by the time we'd waited for the boat in front to go through. And it got worse - the further up the flight of locks we got, the more boats we caught up; by the time we got to the top (ninth) lock of the flight, we were the fifth of six boats queing for each lock.
But such are the joys of narrowboating, and George was starting to learn the ropes by the time we got to the top. Despite the rain and cold wind we kept going, stopping eventually for a late lunch. Once we were warm and dry we braved theelephants elements again (well Charlie did while the rest of the crew stayed in the warm) to move on a bit further.
The forecast was not good as Charlie's phone showed:
When the rain started to get really heavy again, Charlie gave up, moored the boat and joined the others in the warm dry cabin, After setting up the TV aerial, we settled down to watch the narrowboats in the 1,000 boat flotilla on the Thames for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
We did our bit as well:
with a bit of bunting, as had many other boats we'd passed, but the rain wasn't conducive to photography or most other outdoor activities so we eventually called it a day and watched a DVD.
Let's hope for better conditions tomorrow.
But such are the joys of narrowboating, and George was starting to learn the ropes by the time we got to the top. Despite the rain and cold wind we kept going, stopping eventually for a late lunch. Once we were warm and dry we braved the
The forecast was not good as Charlie's phone showed:
We did our bit as well:
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