February Weekend: Day 1

We had some logistics to get through to get to the boat this morning.  Adrian was up early and drove to Bicester North Station, where he got on a train to London for an appointment.  I finished a night shift, got a train to Bicester North, picked up the car and drove to the marina.  Everything was well with the boat, and I reversed the minimal winterisation we do, topped up the water tank, and prepared to set off.  I was under way at about 9.45, on a sunny day with a chilly breeze.  Before long I was going through Cosgrove Bridge.

I was lucky at the lock.  I’d just passed a widebeam going north who said the lock would be in my favour. As I arrived, a couple of volunteers were going to the Buckingham Canal Society work boat moored on the other side, and opened a gate for me.  And there was a hire boat just arrived to come up, so they worked me down.

I boated through Wolverton to the winding hole just beyond the Grafton Street Aqueduct where I turned around.  For some reason, turning here is always quick and easy.  I retraced my steps, past the Wolverton mural, and tied up by the flats.  There’s a lot of work going on under scaffolding on one of the blocks; it appears the insulation is being replaced.

It had taken a couple of hours to get there.  I did a bit of cleaning of the boat, and had a shower, then Adrian arrived back from London on a train to Wolverton.  We walked up to Tesco, had lunch at the Costa there, and did shopping for the next couple of days.  We set off again at 1.30, plodding past all the moored boats.  Cosgrove Lock needed turning, and Adrian went to work it.

The sunshine made the countryside look beautiful, and there was even a bit of warmth in it.

We carried on past our marina to Bridge 62 and moored up in a nice sunny spot.  It was just past 3pm.  Having been up since yesterday evening, I don’t think I’ll be up late.

And an update on the Aylesbury murder trial, from the previous post, in which we both gave evidence.  It turned out that the perpetrator had been convicted of a double murder in Poland in the 1990s, had absconded from jail in the 2000s, and had been the subject of an Interpol red notice ever since.  He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 35 years.  The Mirror and Mail websites both have full write-ups, if you want all the details.

9 miles, 2 locks.