August weekend - Friday

We came up to the boat last night.  Adrian picked me up from work, and we arrived at about 11.30pm.

This morning, the promised rain hadn't arrived -  there was just a bit of drizzle blowing in the wind (and the wind was blowing).  We set off at 8.30 and headed south towards Milton Keynes.  At Cosgrove Lock we shared with a couple who were moving a boat to the River Lee for its new owners.  At Wolverton, I jumped off to go to Tesco, while Adrian carried on to the winding hole at New Bradwell and turned around.  Typically, he met one boat at the Grafton Street Aqueduct, and a hotel pair just as he was starting his turn.

Of course we could have gone to Tesco by car, but adding the few extra boat miles on suits our timings for this three day weekend on board.  Going by boat meant that it took about three and a quarter hours before we were passing our marina again.  We kept going towards Stoke Bruerne, having lunch on the move.  We passed a heavily loaded working pair, Clover and Fazeley.  The amount of water they displace when loaded like this is incredible - it makes just passing them seem like a bit of a fight.

At Stoke Bruerne locks, there was a sharp shower to add to the blustery wind, and it was heavy enough for us to put our waterproof jackets on.  It didn't last long, though, and the coats were soon off again.  We were going up alone, as by now the hotel pair were behind us, having pulled in to get all their guests onto the motor boat for lunch.

Having gone up five locks of the flight, we moored in the long pound at 2.30pm.  I quickly made a crunchy-topped lemon cake, then while that was cooling down we went for a walk up the remaining two locks.  We were surprised to see Waterway Routes, not realising they'd finished their exploration of the fens.  We walked up to the tunnel entrance and back, then continued down the flight to help Paul and Christine finish the last few locks.

During the afternoon, the weather front has passed over us.  It's gone from cloudy and windy to sunny and hot.  The rest of the weekend looks as though it could be good too.

12 miles, 7 locks.