Back home

I slept well — perhaps not surprising given that I’d been up well over 24 hours and had had a couple of glasses of wine.  This morning was very sunny, and the mooring had no protection at all.  As some of the festival boats had begun to leave, I moved along a bit to where there was some shade.  I wanted to get the roof washed, and that would have been difficult in full sun as it would have dried too quickly.  Even so, by the time I’d finished, the sun had moved and the back half of the roof was in the sun again.  The next job was to wash the towpath side of the boat.  I then waited a bit before starting to polish it, until the sun had moved a bit further giving that side some shade.  It was extremely hot work.

After lunch I noticed that Jules and Richard from Jules’ Fuels we’re heading my way.  It took them a while to arrive, as almost every boat stopped them for diesel.  I thought it was worth filling up, and 53 litres went in.

The observant will notice that the motor is Bletchley, rather than Towcester.  Richard was telling me that Towcester was having engine problems, and they’d been planning to borrow Bletchley while repairs were carried out.  But the boat came up for sale, so they bought it instead.  Having both will help during winter stoppages, because they can put a boat each side, and cover more of their patch.

In the late afternoon, Helen and Andy went by on Wand’ring Bark. Having spoken to the, earlier, I knew they were just going to turn round to go back to the water point below the lock. I walked along to the aqueduct, went down the path and through the horse tunnel, and waited for them to come back across.

I’d had an early dinner, then at around 6pm set off for the marina.  It was only slightly cooler, but at least the sun wasn’t quite so strong.  The mile and the one lock took the best part of an hour.  There was a bit of a wait for the lock (which at least meant another brief chat with Andy and then Helen), and there are so many moored boats it’s rare to get above tickover.  Once back in the marina, I packed up, loaded up Adrian’s car, and drove home.

1 mile, 1 lock.  (7 miles, 2 locks)