Birthday Weekend - Day 1

It's Adrian's birthday this weekend, so we're spending it on the boat.  I drove up from London at the end of a night shift this morning.  I arrived at the marina in bright sunshine, but I knew the forecast was for rain this afternoon, so I wanted to set off as soon as possible.  First I lit the fire as the boat felt pretty chilly, and unpacked.  I set off at around 9.45, and turned right out of the marina.  The sun reflecting off the water made seeing anything up ahead a bit tricky.

I had to fill Cosgrove lock before going down.  While I was preparing the lock, I spoke to the owner of 4Evermoore, which used to be owned by Kev and Ann.  As I was leaving the lock, I could see a boat approaching, and when he was close enough I signaled to ask if he was going up;  he was, so I could leave the gate open.  Before long I was crossing Wolverton Aqueduct, over the Great Ouse.

I went through Wolverton and crossed the second aqueduct of the day, over Grafton Street.  This one is bigger in every regard, but not as impressive!

Just the other side of the aqueduct is the New Bradwell winding hole, where I turned around and started re-tracing my steps.  I returned to Wolverton, where I moored up, just before it started to rain.  I made a trip to Tesco; the return walk was a bit wet, but the rain this afternoon hasn't been anything like as bad as forecast.  Let's hope tomorrow follows the same pattern.

This afternoon I've finished writing a boat test, and will soon start making dinner.  The fire is going well; I brought with me some logs from a tree we had to cut down in our garden early in the year.  It was a false accacia, so I had no idea how it would burn.  The logs have been drying in the garage for months, and they're burning well (and smell quite nice too).

Adrian has been in London, so it travelling up to Wolverton station, which is just a couple of hundred metres away.  It won't be a late night, as I'll soon have been up for 24 hours.

4.5 miles, 1 lock.