Evening escape

I came up to the boat after work. What with the Friday afternoon traffic on the M1 and stopping for some shopping on the way, it was gone 5.30 by the time I arrived at the marina. Also, as I'd returned to the car at Tesco's in Wolverton it had started to rain -- and it was a rather heavy and prolonged shower. Still, by the time I'd got stuff out of the car and done all the turning on of things in the boat, the sun was out again.

So naturally I decided to escape from the marina. We have new neighbours on both sides. Across the pontoon is a tug called Herbert, which looks very nice. It's also long, sticking out well beyond the end of the jetty. It might make coming back in a little more tricky, as it's much easier to do the turn to reverse in if you can get the stern close as early as possible.

Anyway, I decided to head towards Cosgrove. There were a couple of spaces in the village, but I really wanted to give the engine a bit more working time, to put some proper juice in the batteries and heat the water. So I continued to the lock, which needed just a bit of topping up before I could go in, and went down. Below the lock, the moorings along towards the aqueduct looked pretty busy, so I went in the first space. As I aimed for the gap, I wondered whether it was long enough; but I've come to the conclusion that spaces which look just a bit short are usually ok -- they're just difficult to judge.

I do like it down here. It's quiet, apart from a few vocal birds, including a duck on a boat on the permanent moorings opposite.

Adrian is at a concert in Bournemouth this evening, and is coming up tomorrow. Then we're off boating on a boat that isn't ours!

1 mile, 1 lock.