Date - 14 April Day - Tuesday Start - Braunston bridge 99 End -Napton Engine Arm
We set off a few minuets after ten to a warm, sunny morning. The canal traffic was quite heavy especially in the area of Shuckburgh where boats coming towards us seem to be travelling in close convoys of about 6, this lead to some interesting manoeuvering and position holding around the bridges. Work at bridge 107 looks to have come to a standstill as far as the canal is concerned and the work force moved to bridge 107 but there was no disruption to boat traffic. We were expecting long queues and delays at the Napton flight, but when we arrived there was no one waiting and a boat just about to leave the lock. We had a very good run up the flight meeting 5 boats in total with all the locks for us, even the ones that had leaky gates only needed one paddle opening for us to get in. Getting back into our mooring at the top of the flight was slightly more of a problem as the silt builds up very quickly while we are away, so quite a bit of rope pulling is required to get Harnser alongside. This evening we walked down to The Folly to eat and had quite a nice meal, pie and chips. I thought the beer was a bit pricey at £5.80 for 2 pints and also the sweets at £5.75 a time You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
