We had a lovely visit from my cousin Catherine, Nigel, Grace, and Matthew last night — they brought fish and chips with them, and we had plenty to catch up on. It rained pretty much the whole evening, and by the time they left, the roof was covered in leaves! This morning it was a very different day, with clear blue skies and sunshine. We set off just after 8.
Through the junction and round the corner, we arrived at the top lock. It just needing a little topping up before we could go in. At one point it looked as though one of the moored boats was making preparations to join us but nothing came of it, and another boat came through the junction but moored up. So we set off alone. The next five locks were all in our favour, and we made good progress in lovely conditions.
For some reason the bottom lock was almost empty, but by the time we were down a couple of boats had arrived to go up. Along the next section the sunshine was so bright it made it difficult to see.
We passed a lot of boats going the other way, including one which had just been picked up by new owners, who hadn’t rally got the hang of steering. We stopped at Rugby Boats for a top up of diesel and a replacement gas bottle. As the day wore on, the cloud built somewhat and the wind really got up. We stopped early afternoon at the moorings just before Nightingales Bridge. We walked across the bridge and up the footpath to Gayton, where we had a look in the church and walked round the village.
There have been lots more boats past, many of them Gayton hire boats with people battling the wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be calmer, but possibly wetter. We’ve made sure we have working tv tonight, so we can watch my colleague Richie on Strictly.
12 miles, 7 locks. (159 miles, 155 locks)
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