Day 2

Blue sky seen this morning.  Actually a lovely day, even feeling warm at times and the early buds of spring tentatively showing. We aimed to set off at 9:00 and whilst getting ready saw signs of a boat locking down behind.   The boat was Frances Alberta and the single handed skipper was please to have someone to share the locks with.   The resulting share worked extremely well, us going into the lock first on the offside, then allowing our new companion to leave first to set the next lock while we crossed and departed from the same gate and closed up after.   Juliet took the sensible option of walking ahead to assist.   There was a lot of water going down the flight, so most locks were full or nearly so to the extent that opening bottom gates required assistance from time to time because of the GU type lock bywashes bubbling up copious quantities of water at the back of the lock.  Nearing the bottom we were aware of an upcoming boater so waited, but it turned out that the water pressure was such that as another single hander he was unable to open the bottom gates to come up and decided to wait for us to come down and lose some water.   After that, our boating liaison came to an end and we carried on alone in much warmer conditions than yesterday.   Finally Blisworth Tunnel appeared and we had that to ourselves.  Moored up, our first though was a welcome drink and meal at the famous Boat Inn.  We retired to the boat for a whisky and closed up for the night.