Easter Cruise: Days 0 and 1

Yesterday, Adrian spent the day working from the boat.  I’ve been on night shifts, so drove up after work this morning, arriving before 8.30.  We unpacked the stuff I’d brought up in the car, and within fifteen minutes or so we were pulling out of the marina and heading south, as it’s a while since we’ve been this way.  At Cosgrove Lock, an electro-fishing boat had just been launched and was taking up quite a bit of the lock landing.  There’s a Canada goose which has made its nest on the offside of the lock; some netting has been put up, either to protect it or lock users, I’m not sure.  As I went into the lock, the goose stood up to hiss at me, revealing a clutch of six eggs.

We stopped at Wolverton, just getting on the end of the moorings, and visited Tesco for food for the next few days.  Then we set off on the long slow plod through Milton Keynes. There are so many moored boats these days that it feels as though you’re hardly ever out of tickover.  Almost as if to demonstrate how long it is since we came this way, there’s a new marina which looks almost complete, and lots of new flats going up on the opposite side of the canal.  There’s also a new Y-shaped bridge across the canal, with the arms of the Y forming the towpath bridge over the marina entrance.

We had lunch on the move, and the sun had burnt off the early mist.  The temperature also started to rise.  At Fenny Lock we had help from a little boy and his grandmother; apparently he’d been waiting for a boat to come along.  We went up Stoke Hammond Lock, which now has a display of rubber ducks on the offside.

We moored a bit further along in a favourite spot.  One September we saw lapwings in the field opposite; no sign today, but maybe it’s an autumn thing.  As we’ve come along, Adrian has made a chilli for dinner tonight.

15 miles, 3 locks.