And on we go...

Fenny Stratford to Soulbury Three Locks, to Linslade Tesco, to bridge 109, to Slapton Wharf, and then to Marsworth Bottom Lock on Tuesday. Progressing slower than usual, and loving it. Drama free, stressless, cold but getting warmer. Then came the drama.

Okay, it was only a minor drama. We set off alone up the Marsworth Flight on the foggy Wednesday morning,

and got stuck almost immediately. Literally stuck! The pound above our first (bottom) lock was very low, and Kantara grounded as Grace tried to ease her out of the lock. There's only one thing to do in this situation. Unless there's a vollie around, then you let them do it for you! I opened a top gate of the next lock, Grace took Kantara back into her lock, and I closed the gates in front of her to protect her from the coming deluge. Then it was a matter of opening one paddle in the bottom gate of the lock above us and watching the ensuing flood, waiting for the water to rise enough for Kantara to pass through and into the second lock. Fortunately, the pound above the second lock is a longish one, and draining that much water out of it didn't make too big an impact upon it. It's always a danger!

Drama over, we carried on up the flight. At the next lock we met NB Daisy from Wyvern Shipping Co., out for ten days on a trip down into London, and we shared locks up the rest of the flight. It was easy going, and the weather was really good by now. Enjoying the locking too much, I neglected to take any photos. There were a couple of vollies around who might have taken the load off for long enough for me to take a few snaps, and they did indeed promise us three times that they would prepare the next lock for us. They did the top lock.

It was well past lunch time, and we were very thirsty and hungry, so we paused below Bridge 135 for refreshments, continuing afterwards, now without Daisy, down through Cowroast, Dudswell and Northchurch locks to moor for the night just above Bushes Lock.

Let it rain!

The rain started, and the rain stopped. It started again. The sun came out, warily. And the rain stopped. So we set off at 11:30, daring the threatening blue-grey clouds to pour any more upon us. And they didn't dare. They continued to threaten, but we ignored them.

We descended Cowroast Lock, and approached Dudswell Lock just as the crew of a solo boat were closing the gates behind them. A couple of blasts of our horn stopped them, and Kantara slipped in alongside them. The two women on the boat were taking it to Brentford. One of them had only recently bought it, and they's just collected it from Cowroast Marina. It was their maiden voyage. Once at Brentford, they would join the Thames and carry on to Kingston-upon-Thames, where the owner would be living on the boat.

As we went down the locks with them, the sun came out.

Cowroast

Dudswell

The name "Cowroast", incidentally, has a lot to do with cows, but nothing at all to do with roasting them. The village used to have a number of large animal pens, and these were used by cattle drovers on their way to markets in and around London, to keep their cattle in overnight. Originally, the name was "Cow Rest". It's still a pretty odd name for a village though!

We parted company with the two ladies after lock 32, Gas 2 (and that's an odd name, too!), and as they continued on their journey, we pulled over and moored at a lovely spot in a small park in Berkhamsted. It started to rain heavily again shortly afterwards.

When that stopped, we walked to the nearby shops for food and some books to read. Grace spends more time reading than I do, and she gets through novels at quite a pace. At the marina, we have the benefit of a large lending library. On the cut, once our small bookshelves have been exhausted, we have to rely on charity shops.

Back at Kantara, no sooner had we finished unpacking our shopping, than it rained. We'd managed to stay dry all day long!