And we're back!

A day later than expected, but never mind. The journey from St Albans took over three hours longer that it should, with problems on the M1 bringing northbound traffic to an absolute standstill, but never mind - we're back.

Today, I booked a two-day helmsmanship course at Sawley Marina on the River Trent. This will be in the last week of June, and we'll make it part of our re-run of the Leicester Ring trip which we had to abort part-way through last year. This time, we'll be doing it anti-clockwise, arriving at Sawley after the first week.

The course involves one day on the river and the second on the canal, earning us the Inland Waterways Helmsman's Certificate, having demonstrated (hopefully) competence in handling the boat on both river and canal, and in a range of cruising situations. It will be an enjoyable couple of days, and we're looking forward to it. I expect we'll have a fair amount to learn, and we'll come out of it with increased proficiency and confidence.

I need to make sure our anchor has the required 5 metres of chain and 60 meters of rope, ready for use on the river.