A boat was just coming out the top of the Soulbury Three Locks when we got there, but we had to turn the other two as we were following a boat down. At Stoke Hammond Lock a Wyvern hire boat had just come up, and they went back to open a gate for us. At Fenny Lock, the Lock was empty with a bottom gate open, but there was a boat coming so Adrian swung the bridge so they could go straight in. By the time they’d come up and we’d gone down, two more boats were arriving to go up.
There was a bit of excitement at Milton Keynes Marina. A plastic boat had just come out and spent quite a it of time on our side of the canal. Then a narrowboat turned into the marina — and rather took me by surprise by reversing straight back out again. It turned out he was winding. Then the other side of Campbell Park, the breasted up coal boats went alongside a wide beam who wanted diesel, meaning there wasn’t much of a gap to squeeze through.
All through Milton Keynes we saw people taking part in the marathon. It really wasn’t the day for it, as it was much too warm. Every now and them there would be groups of spectators cheering on the runners.
By the Black Horse, a day Boat from MK Marina came by. It was listing at such an angle, I wondered whether it was in danger of going over.
We had lunch on the move, and arrived at the Wolverton Aqueduct moorings at around 3pm. We moored up and walked down to see Mark and Sian, spending a couple of hours chatting on the well deck. Back at our own boat, we had a slightly early dinner, then set off for the marina. The aim was to get back in time to set off in the car for home when most of the traffic should have cleared.
17 miles, 6 locks. (35 miles, 12 locks)
1 comment:
A busy Bank Holiday at MK!
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