May Cruise - Day 1

The original plan was that I'd come up to the boat today and do a boat test tomorrow. Then Adrian would come up tomorrow evening, and we'd have a weekend on board.

In reality, Adrian came up to the boat last night, and has been working remotely. My boat test has been postponed because of tomorrow's dire forecast, which means we'll have a bit more time on board. I drove up at lunchtime, and had one of the longest journeys ever. A car and caravan had come to grief on the A34 so I spent an hour stationary, then another hour covering the three miles to the accident. In all, the normal two hour journey took four.

By the time I arrived, it was quite a nice afternoon, with blue skies and some sunshine, so we decided to set off straight away. It was a bit blustery at times, but nothing too bad. Within fifteen minutes of my arrival, we were heading towards Cosgrove.

At Cosgrove lock, there was a boat just preparing to come up. As he came out the lock the wind caught him and he gave us a bit of a clonk. I was expecting it, though, as it's a tricky enough lock to get out of when there's someone waiting, even without the wind.

At Wolverton, Nutfield and Raymond we moored up, looking a bit incongruous among the modern flats.

I was aiming for Bridge 75 at Stantonbury, but could hardly believe my eyes when we came round the corner: there were loads of boats moored here, far more than I've seen before. There was room for us on the end, so I pulled in, with the line of boats stretching away in front of us. Most of these can usually be seen more into Milton Keynes.

Tomorrow's forecast doesn't look so bad for here as for further north. Adrian has to work, but if the conditions aren't too bad I'll take us through MK, which is all on the level. If it's really blowing a gale, we can easily sit it out here.

5 miles, 1 lock.