On the move again ...

Two late arrivals for Braunston passing us at lunch time yesterday (Sunday) ...

 Motor Kangaroo and Butty Australia arriving at the bottom of Buckby Locks - it looks as if they ‘jumped’ the queue too!

Molly wants the last of the afternoon sun ...

... no matter how uncomfortable it is for anyone!

This morning just before 9 we left our mooring below Whilton Marina ...

... cruising through the off-side vegetation and passing both moored and moving boats! 

Moored up just an hour and a couple of miles later just before bridge 22.

No sooner had we tied up two G.U.C.C. working boats came past us ...

Sculptor ...

... and Stanton.

Soon followed by 

Owl and ...

... Cyprus.

(They come in twos to utilise the wide locks and therefore save water)

... and the next two ...

it’s Jules and Richard also returning from Braunston ...

... on motor Towcester and butty Bideford.

We’ve spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the back deck and we’re having a bbq for dinner - goody, goody!

Another early start tomorrow; just a couple of miles to cruise to 

High House Wharf at Weedon for Colin Dundas of Spiderworx to paint our registration numbers on Still Rockin’. 

Also sometime tomorrow a representative from Maxview is coming to collect our new satellite dish, controller and remote as the dish refuses to rise more than 6” and we’ve had no tv since we got on the boat due to that and the fact that the telly signal around here is useless!

Lots of visitors yesterday, and today a gloomy start ...

Lunch time yesterday and Jules arrived to fill the tank ...

and as soon as she pulled alongside the carpet cleaner arrived to clean the rug after being in storage for the last 6 years.

Both Jules and John from the Northampton branch of ServiceMaster quickly completed their tasks and were away ...

Emu probably heading to Braunston for the weekend.  The tug at the bottom of the picture is Sirius breasted up to us ...

... and belongs to Kathy and John who tied up and shared lunch with us before lock wheeling for friends on ...

... on Amsterdam ... 

... they too are on the way to Braunston for the weekend.

 10 past 6 this gloomy morning saw us in the top lock of the Buckby Flight after filling with water ...

... that’s the last we see of Buckby Wharf for a while, I hope ...

Looking back from Lock 9 - another wide beam moored on the side.

Leaving lock 10 and George has already set lock 11 for me ...

Lock 11’s date stone - 1884.

And then the rain came as we passed through lock 12 ...

... but fortunately stopped as we reached the bottom of the flight (lock 13) by Whilton Marina. 

By 08:13 we’re moored up for the weekend.

Molly checking out the towpath!

Typical views of the area ... noisy motorway on one side ...

... and equally noisy railway on the other!

 It’s a bit like a motorway on the canal too, very busy ... Jules again with more supplies for ...

... the Braunston Boat Show ... I do hope the weather doesn’t spoil the events too much.

GUCC boat Stanton ...

... followed another GUCC boat (Alexandra?)
Sculptor

up to the bottom lock.
[thanks Kathryn]

It’s certainly going to be busy on this stretch today!

Still waitin'

The canopy is fixed, the car has gone ...

... the blinds are fitted.

We’ve had drinks on the rear deck with Brenda and Dick from nb Baccus (C&RT volunteers who saw us through Braunston Tunnel), and ...

... a surprise encounter when we recognised Kathy and John as tug Sirius was passing just as we’d tied up.  A quick change of their plans and on board they came with their two lovely Lurcher crosses, one year old Sid under the table and two year old Asher (lovely quiet placid dogs), we had a great couple of hours catching up, as you do!

We’ve bought a sisal mat for the kitchen/dining area too!

One more job to be done by a professional today and we’ll be up with the sparrows in the morning heading south!

In the meantime we’ve seen a fair number of old working boats heading towards Braunston for the show this coming weekend.  I’d not always got my camera to hand so here’s just a few I managed to get ...

Ilford and Aquarius

Mikron Theatre boat albeit heading away from Braunston!

Fuel boat Callisto

We’ve been privileged to see some fine views from Still Rockin’ too ...

 ... including this wonderful sunset.

George is ‘over the moon’ with the solar panels (over to him) ... These have been our best buy!  There are 4 x 240 watt panels.  When I took this photo of the mppt controller screen, it was 10am and they are chucking out 49.8 amps!!  The highest output I have seen is 54.8amps at midday.  It was cloudy this morning and it’s still chucking out 32 amps! We have adjusted our routine for domestic chores because of this and we now wait until the batteries are at 100% then put the washing machine on, the batteries are fully recharged in 2.5hrs so we put the dishwasher on, they are recharged again in time for the evening TV, etc.  In the morning the batteries read about 65% after running the fridge and freezer all night and then we are back up to 100% in less than 3 hours......bargain!  Of course we realise that this is summer time and won’t expect quite this performance during the winter.

 5am yesterday morning we silently cruised through the rising mist, past the moored boats to the water point ... 

... a lovely time of day!

One of George’s bestest, best days ...

The longest day ...

Kinver Canopies arrived and hopefully fixed the leaky pram hood and yesterday George purchased some engineering bricks to use as ballast to bring the bow down a little.  Once the bricks were installed we moved back to the 14-day moorings beyond the bridge where ...

 ... nb Hunca Munca was moored ...

... and here’s George confidently manoeuvring Still Rockin’ past her; 2 boats so very different, both hulls built by Lambon Boats and fitted out by Barn Owl Narrowboats.

After we'd cleaned up all the brick dust on Still Rockin’ it was time to light the BBQ and to end a good day we went for an evening walk down the top 4 Buckby Locks and didn’t get back until after 10pm. A well spent Summer Solstice.

Dave from Cabin Care rang us too, he’s bringing the blinds for the kitchen and bow doors on Tuesday, so once again we’ll go through the bridge to Buckby Wharf for him to fit them and on Wednesday the car will go to it’s new owner and on Thursday ... the start of our summer cruise!

We’re getting there!

Long Buckby Wharf

We had a call from Kinver Canopies this morning to let us know that they were in the area and could call to seal the seams of the back canopy which had leaked during a heavy storm a few weeks ago.

This meant moving on to Buckby Wharf just a few hundred yards away; but George took it all in his stride and brought Still Rockin’ through the bridge and moored perfectly!

Whilst we’re here on the 48-hour moorings we’ll take the opportunity to collect some engineering bricks to use as ballast in the bow while we’ve still got the car.  That will be just about the last time we should need to use the car and it will then be sold.  Qe will have have cut the umbilical cord that prevents us from cruising too far, so there’ll be no more excuses!

Filling Braunston Tunnel

C&RT Volunteer Brenda joined us for an early cuppa at 7:15 this morning whilst her husband Dick was at the other portal of Braunston Tunnel to prevent any boats coming through. They are also boaters and blog readers.

So at 8am with George steering we set off ...

... into the tunnel.

Unbeknown to us Brenda was taking photos too ...

George was relieved we could get in!

During the passage I sat in the bow taking pictures but as we came to the exit I went onto the deck ...

The roof of Still Rockin fills the tunnel!

An ‘arty’ shot!

 There are the volunteers Brenda and Dick waiting for us ... and these are Brenda’s pictures of our exit ...

Thank you both for your help this morning and the help you give to other boaters by being volunteers.  Hope to see you next week when you’re out and about on nb Baccus.

Moored up just before Norton Junction before 10am ...

... with very pleasant views over the countryside.

Later I spotted this Woodpecker over the canal ...

I’ve never actually seen one before ...

... and a very handsome chap he was ...

... and then he was gone!