Sunday
We set off after a cold night (we always switch the heating off over night as we like a cool bedroom but it was frosty!!) at 8:00, Jo popped out with a question about the heating and when I went to look I found we were out of gas. I was a bit surprised that they had sold us a boat with one empty cylinder (which we did know about) and one virtually empty cylinder which we didn't. I was also thinking about filling up with water when we found that there was no hose on board. This was also a bit surprising.
We sailed on to Whilton were the chandlery was doing a brisk trade. We liked it as it was nice and warm! They had a TV on display which was forecasting foul weather by about 2pm. They were very helpful in the shop, sold us two gas cyclinders and sufficient hose.
We got the central heating going again.
and headed off up the locks. We arrived at the top as it was starting to rain at about 1:30. We filled up with water and moored a little further up the canal. It had taken 6.5 hrs from Gayton including the half hour stop. Slightly slower than the book and it was obvious that we were not going to make it to Calcutt that day. The New Inn was still serving food and proved very tempting 
We had our first turkey roast of that Christmas. It was raining well by the time we left so we stayed put for the night. We left the engine running for an hour to make sure we had enough power. Monday
The weather was terrible, strong winds and heavy rain so we sat and waited. Finally the wind dropped a little and we set off at about 10:00. It was still raining. Fortunately, we had to spend a little time in Braunston tunnel which was comparatively dry! We met a nice couple in Braunston locks. They had a slightly shorter boat with bow thrusters. There was so much water coming down the canal it had all turned a very yellowy brown colour and we didn't have to fill the locks as it just flowed over the top gates.
The weather was now freezing and we took turns driving. Neither of us had dry gloves. We caught up a very friendly couple at Calcutt top lock and shared the locks with them. They had had their boat for nine years and were mooring at Calcutt. We took quite a while to pass through as we were chatting too much! The lady (forgot their names!) was an instructor on the Thames. She was very proficient with the boat and had a contempt of bow thrusters (I'd quite like some).
We blew our first attempt to get into the marina and our first attempt to get next to the pontoon. There is an island in the middle (this will feature in future posts) and I thought next time clockwise will give us an easier approach. We arrived about 15:00. Switched off everything we could find, water at the tank, gas at the bottles and electricity at the isolation switch. Loaded the car drove back to Gayton (to get the other car) in under the hour and finally set off home. Well actually we stopped half way at my Mum's for a rest and stayed the night - we were quite tired but happy with our boat!
Cheers Graham
