Friday 23rd March 2007
Stockton Top - Lower Shuckburgh (4½ miles, 3 locks)
Tess had an appointment at the vets in the morning since she was now eight weeks old and could have the first of her inoculations, allowing her to socialise with other dogs, badgers and rabid foxes. She screamed loudly as the needle went in. She will be back in two weeks time for her second jab and to be micro-chipped. We covered her ears as the vet described the size of the needle for that procedure.
Tess slept for most of the journey and we arrived at Stockton Top Marina at 2pm. We had taken a ridiculous amount of extra stuff, mainly for the dog, so it took longer than normal to load onto Hawksmoor before we were away at 3:30pm.
We shared Calcutt Locks with another boat where the husband kept barking instructions at his wife, although much of it was misinformed in my opinion. She was reluctant to walk across the lock gates and I commented to Captain Bligh that perhaps her slip-on court shoes with their heels were not quite the right footwear. "She hasn't had time to change yet" came the reply. Jen did all the dare-devil stuff for the remaining two locks.
Captain Bligh announced that he would be mooring at Braunston. I suggested that this was too far, but he insisted that it was less than an hour away and that in any case it would be light until gone 7pm. Wrong on both counts, at least until the clocks changed on Sunday.
At Napton Junction, we turned towards Braunston and moored for the night just past Bridge 103. This proved a popular spot as we were joined by three other Ownerships boats.