Oh what a day.

Travelled 2.8 miles, worked 8 locks in a time which is neither here nor there.

The plan was to reach Long Itchington, but we did not expect it to take as long as it did.

With no need to hurry off this morning, we eventually left our really peaceful over night mooring at 8.55am.

We arrived did the middle Fosse Lock and went on towards the top Fosse Lock. I stepped off the boat to find a Canal and River Trust man there, he asked us to moor up, so we pulled in on the lock mooring and then I saw the problem.

The mile pound was empty.

High and dry and sitting on the bottom.

Even the tree roots were hardly dipping their toes in the water.

Kev Moore and his fellow worker, were on a mission to find out the cause, so they walked up the pound and found no obvious leak, but when they had got to the lock the top gate had been left open, so they shut it and in the time we chatted to them about the lack of water the water that had been in the lock had leaked out. Keith thought it may have been something to do with one of the paddles, but until they could get enough water in the pound they could not check that theory.

Two guys arrived to turn the pumps on to back pump the water and the C&RT guys went off to Napton Reservoir to open up the water there. It was all hands to the pumps to get us some water. Two other boats then joined us and they were on their way to Crick for the show. With lots of time on our hands, it was time for a coffee.

With the back pumps working, the worry then was we would be left on the bottom, so it was suggested we move into the lock out of harms way, so that is exactly what we did, as it turned out the pound only went down by about a foot, but better to be safe.

Pump working away.

Pound getting some much needed water.

Whilst we continued to wait, I got on with washing my back cabin plates, whilst Keith nattered to the other boaters waiting and the C&RT guys, who were doing their best to get things moving along, but when you have a mile pound to fill it is never going to be a quick job. Lunch time came and went and we were still waiting for the pound to fill.

I climbed up and down the lock ladder numerous times.

Managed to collect enough sticks in the wood to fill my bucket, so lit the back cabin stove so I could cook dinner.

With enough water in the pound at 2pm Kev part filled the lock to see whether the paddle was at fault and then it became apparent that the lock gates leaked like a sieve. So it is thought that with the top gate left open and the bottom gates leaking badly this is why the pound emptied over night.

At 2.30pm Kev let us go alone even though the pound was still down by a good two feet. He wanted to see if we could get through, which meant if we could then so could the others. We were then told to send boats down, thus them bring the water down with them. Keith did find a couple of sticking points but we made it to Wood Lock and passed another boat heading to Fosse Top Lock. From then on we passed another nine boats heading down, so it worked in our favour.

We arrived at Long Itchington albeit a few hours later than expected. I have to say I cannot praise the C&RT guys enough, Kev Moore and his fellow workers were fantastic.