Day 11: Braunston to Norton Junction

 

A lovely morning as we approach Braunston with the church ahead

After topping up with water behind Goldfinch (why are water points often so often on awkward corners!), we approach the 6 Braunston locks, which are double, heavy and going up. The lockkeeper asked Goldfinch to go up with a hire boat which had been waiting on its own for a while, so Catnap followed on our own for the first 2 locks, then we met another boat and paired up.  There's trick we try (and sometimes succeed with) to keeping the boat steady when alone in a double lock which involves fine tuning the opening of ground and gate paddles to hold the boat into the lock side - h/t to Mick Gavigan for this, he wrote a book on solo boating with hints and tips for safe handling.

After the locks is Braunston Tunnel (2042 yards) and our tunnel light wasn't working properly, so Denis rigged up a 12v worklamp angled to shine up onto the tunnel roof from inside the cratch canopy. We met 5 oncoming boats, which is our record so far and required very careful steering as they passed. The guide notes that "a mistake in direction has given it a slight S bend" but Denis says he couldn't tell the difference between a bend and natural disorientation when steering in a pitch black tunnel!

In the tunnel

Exiting 

Lush trees in the cutting

Moored for the night before Norton Junction

We moored behind Esme and Brian in Leaside Lass who'd had an epic - and terrifying - experience on the River Trent after exiting from Keadby Lock onto the river and heading upstream.  Their engine promptly conked out and despite Brian's attempts at repairs midstream, it wouldn't restart and the boat drifted to the bank where they found some tree stumps to tie up to. However, that section is tidal and when the water receded the boat was left still attached but listing at 45 degrees.  Frantic calls to River Canal Rescue - their engineer arrived, was able to board from the bank and made the repair. After waiting for the tide to refloat the boat, it was discovered she'd taken on quite a lot of water and was listing heavily. On top of that, an 'Aegir' was due the following day (the Trent tidal bore, which can be up to 5 feet in height) and they were strongly advised to get off the river back through Keadby Lock.  As it was pitch black by then, the lockkeepers floodlit the lock and surrounding area, so they were able to limp to safety.  They said they hoped that they hadn't put us off going on the Trent!!

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