Welton to Blisworth (Grand Union Canal, Main Line)
After a week of ascent, we are finally going downhill.
After a bit of chaos at Norton Junction (I still don't know what one boat was trying to do), we successfully descended the seven locks at Buckby. The photo shows an interesting trinket shop by one of the locks, where we acquired two buckets, a blanket badge and a pirate hat!
Toward the end, there were enough boats coming up to have the locks set for us, which saved a lot of time and effort. Going down with another boat and sharing crew also helped as one pair could go on to prepare the next lock.
Unfortunately, the bottom lock had a leak half way down, which just lined up with an open window in the boat. As my crew were busy elsewhere, there followed an interesting period maneuvering the boat so the leak was away from the windows!
After lunch at the bottom of the locks, we had a rather boring afternoon cruise to Blisworth itself, ready for the tunnel first thing tomorrow.
14 miles and 7 locks today. Weather was sunny all day and far too hot...
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