Canal rage at Buckby Locks but spring shows itself

Norton Junction to Nether Heyford, Grand Union Canal, 7.25 miles 7 locks

Pulled the pins fairly early today and moved towards the waterpoint at the far end of the wharf.. but before I could get there a narrowboat had exited the lock ahead of me and pulled right in there.. Hey, hey, it was fellow blogger Steve, and I Spy NB Albert!!

Nice to meet you Steve, lovely boat is Albert. 

After a short chat to Steve and dumping the rubbish, we didn’t bother to wait until Albert’s tank was full so continued down the flight of locks knowing that we could fill our own tank a little further along the canal at Weedon.  I moored by, and popped into the little shop at the side of the canal close to one of the locks while Vic got the lock ready.  When I came out of the shop NB Moore2Life was already in the lock, and I boarded No Problem to take her in.  There was a boat coming and I called over to the crew that I was just about to go into the lock..

“Thought you were moored” says one.. “No just popped into the shop”  With that he took his narrowboat straight into the open lock..

He had only got half way in when all those around the lock told him to back off and let me through as the lock had been set by my own crew… Then this bloke arrived out of nowhere along the towpath and started his abuse at me.. “You could do with a Helmsman Course”.. “Yep, I have always fancied one of those” says I.. Actually I thought he was joking, because the wind was high and the boat that had gone in the lock came flying out right into my path and stopped, making it very difficult to get by him and get into the lock..

More abuse followed from this chap.. in fact I have never heard such abuse towards a steerer before.. it didn’t phase me, but it did upset the others I think.  I told the guy that until he stopped shouting at me I would not be shutting the gate to drop our boats down the lock.. More abuse..

“Well if you don’t hurry up then this boat behind will overtake you before the next lock and take it off you”… I tried hard not to smile.. very hard, the next lock was about 100 yards away.. “Well you will have to get by me first won’t you.. sorry but I will be in the next lock you will have to wait!”

Huff Puff off he went, and we never saw him again.. dunno where he came from, dunno where he went.  He didn’t even have a windlass and wasn’t crewing the boat behind!

Much more peaceful now dropping down the 5 remaining locks, and mooring at the bottom we nipped over to the Chandlers for a couple of bolts that were needed and to go to Bedazzled to see about some LED lights.. but unfortunately they were shut today.. pity.  I will have to make sure that we return here on a weekday.

Pulling the pins at the lunchtime mooring we made our way to Weedon to fill the water tank.  I had just been thinking how green everything is looking all of a sudden, when coming into view was a family of ducks..

These are the first ducklings we have seen this year.. but I remember seeing duckings in March when going through Reading a few years ago, so they are not that early this spring..

I saw a very interesting errrrrr narrowboat today.  Some time ago British Waterways sold off a lot of their working boats, presumably including some of the small motors with open holds.. well this may well be one of those, but now it had a built in steel structure.. it is very tall too..

We have put the pins in near Nether Heyford tonight, a lovely village this is, one of my favourites along this part of the Grand Union.. anyway, it is nice and peaceful here..  Teehee!