Date - 31 08 09 Day - Monday Start - Redhill 1645 End -Zouch Lock 1830 Bank Holiday Monday
First credit where credit is due, I spoke to Waterspace, Pat Barton and Bruce of RGB about the problem of running engines in the morning and being unable to catch the ferry to the site and between them they changed the ferry time to finish at 10 30 am. this gave half an hour to leave the boat and catch the last ferry to the site. Whilst at the National I bought 25 lt of engine oil for £55 and borrowed Marine Engine Services barrow to drag it back to the boat on the mid day ferry. Had the three Fire Extinguishers off the boat discharged and refilled for £8 50 each ready for the next BSC. and bought a roll of "underlay" to go under our mattress to prevent condensation. After saying our good byes to as many people as we could find we left the site for the last time and walked back to the boat, once back we decided that we may as well make a move, as we did not intend returning to the site this evening, we found the Harbour Master who assisted us in slipping out backwards between the other boats in our pack and made sure the others were secure after our departure. As we pulled away it was just quarter to five and a boat was coming upstream behind us also heading south. To say the engine was smoky after all the running on idle over the weekend would be an understatement so I gave it a bit of welly to clean things up and left the other boat way behind. As we approached Kegworth Deep Lock it was good to see that it was virtually empty with Diana just drawing the paddles to equalise the gates, there was still no sign of the following boat as I went in, Diana closed the gates and drew the top paddle, at that point the other boat came round the bend, so Diana dropped the paddle, went to the foot of the lock, drew the bottom paddles and then opened one gate, all she had to do after that was convince the other boat that we were not coming out, but were going up and waiting for them and that they could get a narrowboat through one gate, once that was archived we were on our way up again. After leaving the lock it was some time before we saw the second boat again. We met 4 boats before Zouch lock and when we arrived at the lock the bottom gates were wide open, so straight in. We moored for the night just before the next bridge between the bridge and a BW dredger moored near the end of the lock moorings at 6-30 pm. After a glass of wine and listening to the Archers I set about doing an oil and filter change that was a few hours overdue, I had almost finished draining the oil when the boat that had shared the last lock with us came by, I am glad I didn't wait for them. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
