But meanwhile we had another boat.

(Boat Sickle - posted by Alan)
(Retrospective post for Friday 28th June)

First lock - Buckby Bottom.

Flamingo being trapped in by the long term lock failure on the Rochdale canal didn't necessarily mean a stop to all boating activity until the lock was fixed and we could escape. 

We had always planned to take both boats, Flamingo and Sickle, to the Braunston Historic Boats event, but clearly Flamingo had ceased to be a possibility as soon as it became clear how long the Rochdale stoppage would inevitably last.

Moving towards next Buckby lock.

In fact whilst we went away with Flamingo, Sickle had been left with the local boat painter, Colin Dundas, for a complete repaint of its topsides.  We had now owned her for some 8 years, and the paint was already some years old at the time of purchase - it had generally held up well, but was now tired, and in need of a full refresh.  Colin had done an excellent job of meeting our requirements for a revised livery, and the work was complete.  We could take Sickle to Braunston if we were prepared to leave Flamingo unvisited for nearly a week up in Lancashire - we considered carefully and decided it was a slight risk we were prepared to take.

Cath takes over for the Braunston flight.

The principal reason Sickle has seen little use on its own for several years, and generally only travels about with Flamingo, is that since we inherited a second large black dog, back cabin living has ceased to be possible.  Cath, Odin and I could squeeze into a back cabin for night time, but fitting Max in as well is a step too far.  So we had to negotiate with the sons that they would have the dogs for the duration of us travelling to Braunston, attending the show over the weekend, and then travelling back to our home mooring - a bit tricky as David was scheduled to be involved in other things.  However a deal was struck, so we were on.

Working down Braunston

There were several things needing close consideration.  Much necessary stuff had been removed from Sickle prior to it going in the paint dock.  We had to work out what all that was, and ensure we had all key items necessary for 3 or 4 days on board.  Mercifully Colin was true to his word, and very little of the inevitable mess from removing all the paint back to metal had found its way inside the living space - we had very little additional cleaning up to do. We also needed to be aware of the short opening hours at both Buckby and Braunston locks.  Effectively we needed to be installed on the boat the previous night, if we were to get through both trouble free in the same day.  So we actually headed up to the mooring on the thursday afternoon/evening.

First time the name has been on the front in very many years.

It was great to be out with Sickle again - a very useful chance to do some boating whilst Flamingo could go nowhere, and Sickle on the Grand Union is a very different prospect from Flamingo on the Rochdale as well.

 

Goodness knows how many photos I've take at "Pub" lock over the years!

We think Sickle looks superb, (although given what it cost, I would have been very disappointed if she didn't!).  Flamingo is externally very "tired" and unlikely to get addressed for a year or two yet.  So it is very pleasing to once again be able to present at least one of the boats with its paintwork and sign-writing in very good order. 

Sickle is 6th amongst the 7 tugs stretched across the canal.

We had some tricky choices about exactly what scheme to use, and what directions to give Colin about the finer detail, but we think it has worked out very well indeed. Colin is a superb sign-writer, and amongst other things has entirely hand painted the "British Waterways Transport" logos, as well as painting "Sickle" onto the bows in an area that actual has Sickle's former British Waterways "asset number" crudely added in raised weld.  We didn't want to destroy that bit of Sickle's long history, and Colin having worked over the top of it has produced a result that has far outstripped what we thought might be possible.


High House Wharf to Braunston
Miles 10.5, Locks:13
Total Miles 10.5, Total Locks:13