Bank Holiday Weekend - Day 1

We both came up to the boat yesterday -- Adrian in the afternoon, doing some food shopping on the way, and me after work, arriving about 11.30pm.  This morning was sunny, but very chilly.  We were up pretty early, and tried to decide which way to go.  Last time out we headed south, and next time we'll be going north to the Crick show.  So we settled on going south.

We did the familiar drop down Cosgrove Lock to the sump pound, then plodded through Wolverton, New Bradwell (where a little bird hitched a ride for a couple of hundred metres), Great Linford, and Milton Keynes.  There was a little fair set up at Campbell Park.  We saw Tacet and waved, then a couple of boats along a lady said she read the blog - so hello to Windsor Castle.

We had lunch on the move just before Fenny Compton Stratford Lock.  At the lock, the pub garden was full of people enjoying the sunshine, some of whom helped with the gates.  We planned to stop for diesel at Willowbridge, but there were already two boats on the diesel point, apparently waiting for something, so we carried on.  Adrian had been bemoaning the fact that he'd forgotten to buy any eggs yesterday, so was delighted to find some for sale at Stoke Hammond Lock.  The lady in the garden said they'd been laid this morning.  Three are brown, and three white.

As we arrived at the bottom of the Soulbury Three, a boat was just about to come off the water point, so we shared the locks.  It turned out to be Tranquility, a shared boat, some of whose owners keep a blog.  I went ahead to set the lock above, which meant Adrian and the other steerer could do some synchronised boating.  By now, it was really quite warm.

We had a mooring in mind -- by Bridge 109, where we stopped for a night on our last trip.  It's quieter than usual because there are no Virgin trains, thanks to engineering works at Euston.  We moored just in front of a butty, which I think is called Beverley, and which is normally with the diesel boat, Ascot.  Sure enough, after we'd been here a little while, Ascot returned -- so we flagged him down, filled up with diesel, and got a bag of coal.

17 miles, 6 locks.