Saturday 13th August
A grey drizzly start moved along nicely to reveal a temperate day. We pulled the pins, passed through Snarestone tunnel and joined an increasing level of southbound boats. The shallow water and silted edges made passing some Northbound craft quite difficult if you wanted to avoid going aground.
I think the WRGies are using the CaRT workboat as a buffer zone to protect their scaffolding – doesn’t do much to help hirers get through the bridgehole though.
As nb “famous mattress maker” approached us, G moved as close to the towpath as possible as he was aware that the offside was very silted at this point. nb Mattress continued on determined to give a good eight foot gap between us. The obvious happened and they grounded at the bows. Because he was still going quite fast, the boat tipped right over as it went fully onto the mud and we heard crockery hit the floor. G offered to take a rope and pull them off but with a scowl that appeared to say “That was your fault” the offer was refused. We were happy that they were fully floating again before we lost visual contact. We are not aware of our status as a ‘plague ship’ but casn imagine no other reason for needing to leave 
Nice to see the Ashby day boats tied up and locked up on the Battlefield waterpoints blocking all access. That’s considerate.
We passed nb Waiouru again today. They informed us that a car was submerged by the entrance to the Ashby canal and so they were staying put for the weekend so CaRT could clear it. Other northbound boats we passed said that it could be passed with care as it was not fully blocking the junction. Since we travelled up the Ashby nb Earnest has returned to it’s mooring after Neil’s trip on the upper Thames.
Sunday 14th August
G did a car shuffle on the Di Blasi while I tidied and packed up ready for going home. Jannock will be here for two weeks as we’ve got an important family birthday to deal with next weekend – G’s dad is 93.
Brenda
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