Well that was a turn-up for the books. Jannock took advantage of the nice weather and continued her trip north(ish). Saturday 25th August. When we arrived at Slapton, it was obvious that two separate occurrences had left Jannock in a very filthy state. Firstly the towpath had been strimmed and so her starboard side was now camouflaged and secondly a passing boat must have come very close and had deposited what looked like a full throttles worth of the canal bed all over the starboard side, in through the engine vents and across the rear deck. To add to this, the alarm system activated once I stepped onto the rear deck which impressed me. The PIR sensor must have detected my body through the small gap in the top hatch. Having opened up and silenced the alarm, we started the engine and prepared for the off. We were able to immediately join another Northbound boat to share Slapton, Church and Grove locks before they pulled over in Linslade. We continued on through the remaining locks on our own even managing to meet southbound boats in every lock at Soulbury. After Stoke Hammond lock we stopped and filled up with diesel at Willowbridge Marina for 49ppl. It was good to see that most of the dangerous offside willows through Milton Keynes have now been trimmed back to allow improved vision for navigating craft, they were positively dangerous earlier this year. Our trip through MK was very un-eventful and we finally pulled over for the night between Great Linford and New Bradwell, a nice quiet rural mooring. We eat out and then enjoyed the sunset on the towpath until it became too chilly for Brenda when we moved back inside. Sunday 26th August I was on the road at 6am to fetch the car from Slapton and move it to Stoke Bruerne. I got horrendously lost trying to get back to the boat as I am totally unable to form a cognitive map of Milton Keynes. Even having taken care to observe prominent features on the way out did not assist the return journey. Luckily I finally made it back to Jannock before Brenda started worrying. We set off after breakfast and made the bottom of Stoke Bruerne locks a little before 1pm. There was a queue in which we were 5th and so we were happy when another boat happened along to share with. At the third lock up, I managed to get the speeding bike front wheel jammed in a hole in the grass and throw myself over the handlebars landing hard on the stone towpath. Ouch! That smarts. With my knees and elbow dripping blood we continued up the flight, leaving our partners to moor for the night in the long pound. As she was entering the top lock, Brenda was asked a question by a lady walking along the towpath to which she replied that she could not hear her question due to the engine noise and was very busy negotiating the overhanging willow tree to try and get into the lock without striking the masonry. Once we were ascending Brenda was about to ask the lady to repeat her question but stopped when she heard the same woman complaining to another how rude Brenda had been to her and that she was going to make a complaint about her. This made us wonder to whom the complaint would be made - are boaters passing through SB supposed to be part of some Disney-eske tourist attraction run by the museum or the pub? We mused this matter as we continued on through a very smokey tunnel with water cascading down from above at the vent holes. Through Blisworth and onto the 14 day moorings near to Gayton. I then used the Di Blasi to fetch the car from SB as we had made such good progress. Back home on Sunday night to feed the cats and even managed 3 games of Soddit up the local with the gang. Monday 27th August. Returned to the boat to continue but had to wrap up as the northerly wind that accompanied the overcast sky was quite chilling. On through Bugbrooke and Welton with the weather improving all the time and then stopped for lunch just after the A5 bridge south of Wilton. Brenda had been complaining that the throttle control was getting very stiff and was hurting her (already damaged) wrist so I stripped the unit to grease it whilst she prepared lunch. When I disconnected the throttle cable I noticed that it did not really want to be aligned with the lever and so I investigated the engine end and found that the cable, which had been fitted during the 2003 blacking visit by J L Pinders, was not aligned correctly. Having disconnected the engine end, I reconnected the lever end and then adjusted the cable to fit the injector pump better. My, what a difference that has made! The lever moves easily and all of the previous rough running of the engine has gone away. Jannock now has an engine that is smooth as a very smooth thing. Pity I didn't identify this some time ago as I might have saved the expense of a new drive plate. As we approached Wilton locks, the number of boats moored on the lock landing lead me to believe we had a long wait ahead, however there was no-one waiting for the locks. Whilst preparing the bottom lock, another boat came along and so we had someone to share with again. At every lock we met another boat (or two) descending and so it was a very speedy ascent. Our partners were stopping above the top lock for a drink in the pub but we continued on to our chosen mooring for this week. The car fetch on the Di Blasi was made in good time with the machine topping 36mph along the A5 at one point. I do believe it is almost run in now. Boat secured, we headed home with another pile of washing. Roll on next weekend.
Graham www.jannock.org.uk [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
