June Cruise - Day Sixteen

With only a couple of miles to do this morning, we had a relaxed start to the day and set off at 9am.  The sun was coming out, and it was already warm.  As we approached Brinklow Marina, there appeared to be a boat coming towards us, so I held back to let it through.  However, it was a Napton hire boat trying to wind in the marina entrance.  They failed, and ended up going right through the bridge.  I followed them in, and Adrian shouted some advice about keeping the tiller over, so they didn't just end up facing the same way.  We were on our pontoon before they'd managed to turn around.

We had a quick cup of tea, then walked round to the car and set off for Braunston, to visit the working boats rally.  We parked and walked down the canal to the junction, buying an ice cream on the way.  We were fortunate that Sarah Edgson's boat Ling was there, and we were invited on board.  Already there were Amy and James from Lucky Duck, Dan from the Canal World Forum, and Lesley from Caxton.  We had a great time going through the junction and back through the marina.  When James took the tiller he made the turn out of the marina onto the main line look easy -- many hadn't.

We also bumped into Sarah from Chertsey, then sat chatting to Kath and Neil from Herbie.  Then I collected a pair of plank and pole stands which Peter Milburn from Milburn Boats made for us, and had left at the marina office.

Then it was back to the boat to pack and clean.  We'll have an early dinner, then I'm off to London on the train from Rugby as I have an early shift tomorrow, and Adrian will head home in the car.

It's been a great trip, with a good mix of new territory and familiar places.  We've done plenty of entertaining on board, and Briar Rose has been everything we hoped.  In our 206 miles and 209 locks, we clocked up 99.9 engine hours.

2 miles, 0 locks.  (206 miles, 209 locks)