Sunday 11 December 2011

December weekend - Day 3

No frost this morning, and neither was there the forecast wind and rain.  We had a cooked breakfast (potato cakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon), and set off at 9.45.

A Kate hire boat passed us in the opposite direction before Hillmorton, so we had high hopes that the locks would be in our favour.  They weren't.  Not only were they empty, but the bottom gates had also been left open on the top two. At least the church bells were ringing.  At the bottom lock, we spotted a boat approaching as we decended the lock, so at least we could leave the gates open for them.


At Clifton Cruisers, they're currently fitting out a very unusual looking boat.  Not only is it a bright colour, it's also got a very distinctive stern and bow.



As we came through Newbold, we noticed a collection of flowers by Bridge 50, and wondered whether they'd been left for the man whose body we found on Friday.  There's been no update from the police yet.

We thought we'd better top up with diesel, so reversed into Lyme Farm onto the service point.  We also bought some bags of coal -- the same as the ones I got from Calcutt a few weeks ago, but much cheaper.

We arrived back to a somewhat breezy Brinklow Marina, and the wind helped us onto our pontoon.  We'd just about got tied up at around 1pm when the rain started, so the timing could hardly have been better.  We'll have dinner here, then I'll take Adrian to the railway station; he's got meetings in London tomorrow, and is staying there tonight.  I'll come back to the boat and head home tomorrow morning.

7 miles, 3 locks.  (24 miles, 6 locks)

3 comments:

Andy Tidy said...

Advance posting a Christmas greeting like I did by mistake last week???

Adam said...

Shhh! Blogger scheduling malfunction!

Jo Lodge said...

Happy Christmas to you both. Not sure if you have passed us on your time out and about. We are at Newbold at the moment and the flowers are still by the bridge. The gentleman who drowned was named Richard and he did live rough. So tragic at this time of the year and for you to have found him.
Hopefully we may see you at some time. Jo xx