Grand Union Canal:Anchor Farm (Bridge 43a)

A murky overcast morning, the wind having died down overnight.  We set off to dawdle up to the bottom of Braunston Locks past myriads of moored boats.   No sign of any other boats moving to accompany us, so we set off alone and passed just one pair coming down.   The tunnel was empty right until the end when the first of three opposite directions decided to enter the tunnel when I had only about 50 yards to go.  This was a bit of a mistake I think on his part.  It takes a while to adjust to the darkness and the line of the tunnel and we got a bit of a glancing blow on the bows from him.   If I see a boat near the end I like to wait.   At Buckby Top a boat was waiting in the lock for us as there is a water conservation request and pairing is expected where possible.   We had a slow passage due largely to opposite direction traffic turning locks around ahead of us.   This makes no difference to the water used overall but it does mean that the balance in the individual pounds gets out of kilter and so not surprising that the last two pounds were very low.   Pressing on we encountered the first of the promised showers as well as glimpses of the sun.   We have pressed on today to get a bit ahead of our plans because tomorrow the weather is forecast to be pretty horrible, wind and heavy rain.  So at 4 pm we stopped.