25th June 2011 - The Napton Incident

Well, it finally happened and I might of known it would be at Napton! After 227 locks in 3 weeks of cruising, the 228th, Napton lock 11, I recorded an official lock delay. The first time I've had to wait for another boat in front of me to use a lock, pretty incredible really!

It seemed to rain most of the evening and some of the night. We woke to grey sky with grey bits! And as I type now it hasn't changed much, I'm just amazed it hasn't rained. It being 'hire boat Saturday' we had a plan! Napton locks are notorious for taking ages as new hirers fathom out the technicalities of locks! The plan was to arrive at the bottom between 11 and 12, thus avoiding the early morning rush hour and before the hirers are let loose. As we cruised straight in to the bottom lock, I was complimenting myself on a great plan! Then we arrived at lock 11! We tied up at the bottom, there were 2 boats in the pound above waiting for lock 12, we waited and waited, after some 20 - 30 minutes a boat descended lock 12, dawdled along the pound and came into the (ready for some time) lock 11, no explanation as to what was going on, but something like this always seems to happen at Napton! On we went to tie up for the night at Wormleighton Hill, one of our regular stops along here, for me to swear a lot at the satellite dish as we wanted to watch the British speedway grand prix, swearing (and a phone call to Sky) seemed to resolve things nicely, so here we are, grand prix on and still waiting for it to rain!

Looking back to Napton bottom lock:

I guess this must be for the caption competition!

Today:   12 miles -   20 locks -     8 hours
So Far: 243 miles - 233 locks - 128 hours