July weekend - Day 4

It was cloudy again first thing, and pretty chilly too; I had to resort to a fleece for the journey in the morning.  We set off at 8.30, and covered the familiar miles through Bugbrook, Gayton Junction, and Blisworth.  Yet again there was a boat just about to come out the tunnel as we wanted to go in, requiring a bit of hard reverse.  At the other end, the trip boat stuck its nose into the tunnel and reversed back out again.

We did the top two locks at Stoke Bruerne, then moored in the long pound and walked up to The Navigation for lunch.  There we were joined by Adrian's long standing friends Alex, Myles, and their children Michael, James and Peter.  They live in Northern Ireland, but are over visiting family.  They joined us down the locks, then Myles drove to Thrupp Wharf while the rest of the family stayed on board for the journey.  By now the sun was out and it was getting hot again.

The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, sitting either in the cratch or, one at a time, with me at the helm.  Michael, who's 8, liked using the Morse control to slow down for moored boats, ticking off the bridge numbers, and looking to see when they were built.  Afterwards, he said it was the best ride he'd ever had -- quite something given that they went to Legoland last week!

Back at the marina we got tied onto our jetty, and all headed home.

15 miles, 7 locks.  (40 miles, 48 locks)