Soggy Stratford

On Thursday we stopped off at Grove Lock to buy gas and diesel from the marina there. It's an impressive-looking business. Not only is there a very pleasant marina, but also two large and inviting camping sites dotted with caravans and campervans. The next stop was at Linslade, for water, Tesco and lunch. Rain had been promised, but hadn't so far amounted to much.

Mooring at the end of the day was problematic. We wanted to stop at Old Linslade Manor. We made several attempts to pull in to the bank, but found the water too shallow, and had to reverse out, move on and try again. But we were successful eventually, and tied up between bridges 108 and 109. It was an even more suitable mooring than the ones at which we'd failed.

The sky was piled high with fabulous clouds, but still there was no rain.

The CRT guy I met on Monday had said that the Grand Union main line was "really busy", but seriously you wouldn't think that even if you were seeing double! The canal continued to be very quiet. Our five-mile dawdle to Fenny Stratford was peaceful and beautiful, and we met perhaps four other boats, one of which bore Donna and her other half on their way back to their home mooring. Sadly, the five-year-old intermittent engine fault had recurred and forced them into submission, and they'd had to cut short their trip. We waved them farewell and wished them all the best in sorting it all out.

Oh look! A pile of boats!! 

Soulbury Three Locks were bleak and deserted. The pub was empty. Odd. Vladimir Putin was walking back and forth agitatedly in the car park, his phone to his ear. At least, I think it was him. Very odd.

By the time we got to Stoke Hammond, it was raining on and off. When it was on, it was quite hard but mercifully brief. The worst of it was being saved until we got to Fenny Stratford. Here we met up with NB Nutshell, whom we'd seen several times over the past weeks. They were about to enter the lock, so we slipped in next to them. Then it started to rain.

We closed the top gates, and it rained harder. Dropped the paddles, harder still. Opened the bottom paddles - it was really raining hard now! Opened the gates and let Nutshell out ahead of us, was unable to close the swingbridge because - dunno why, closed the bottom gates and dropped the paddles, moored Kantara and wrang the water out of some very wet things, hurried back to figure out why the swingbridge wouldn't swing, figured out why and swung it, re-closed a recalicitrent gate, and hurried back to Kantara.

Drenched! Sodden!! Soaked!!!

 (Photos taken next day!)

It wasn't raining as we set off the next morning, and there were a lot more boats on the move - most of it hire boats from the Wyverne fleet. But the weather wasn't in their favour; cold to very cold with strong winds, mainly sunny but with outbreaks of ice. We didn't go far. After about six miles we stopped at Giffard Park, Milton Keynes, to have a bite to eat and to do some shopping. When we were ready to move again - we only had about two more miles to do to get to a favourite mooring - the sky loured, the ice descended and the wind it did blow.

We went in for further refreshment. And stayed the night.

Giffard Park turned out to be a much better mooring than we had expected it to be. It was very peaceful, and the towing-path was little used. There was open parkland opposite us, and quiet housing next to us on our side. It was clean and tidy. We've marked it as a favourite on our map.

 (Photos taken the next day!)

Favourite boat name of the day, "Flat Bottom Girl".

Did I tell you about the last time we were on this stretch of canal, and saw a duck flying away with an egg in her beak, angrily (?) pursued by two males? Weird!

Tring Reservoir to Grove Lock (cruise retrospective)

I forgot to tell you yesterday about the strange sign we saw on the towing-path. From CRT, addressed to anglers. I missed taking a photo, but it looked very much like this.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that there's another couple of arrows, one either side of this, some tens of metres away. But there were none, I swear, and Grace will vouch for it. So I can imagine that anglers really aren't too bothered about the restriction being imposed by this!

Cruising today was purely functional. If we weren't quite so keen to get back to the marina and get our inverter replaced, then we would have stayed where we were this morning. The day has been really cold, with quite a strong wind, and if there were not the urgency, the reservoir would have been an excellent place to be.

Before we left this morning, we got chatting with the couple on board NB Suchar Daval, moored nearby.

It's not unusual for boaters to have their car with them as they cruise. And bikes, too. And what they do, and what this couple were doing, is to leapfrog the boat and the car. Today, the two of them drove their car from the reservoir car park to Leighton Buzzard, and parked it there. Then they got their bikes out of the boot and cycled back up the towing-path to their boat. Tomorrow, they'll take the boat to Leighton Buzzard, and drive the car on another step. They passed us on their way back when we were at Seabrook Lock. They'd driven to Leighton Buzzard and cycled back that far - about six miles - in the time it took us to navigate five locks and two miles.

It was a dull day, and the countryside through which we passed just didn't have the zing that a late April ought to give it, so we were glad when we exited Grove Lock and moored up for the night. There's a good pub back at the lock, and I've booked a table.

(3 hours later) The Grove Lock Inn is excellent! A very good Sunday Lunch is available until 7:00pm. It's highly recommended.

NB Suchar Daval went down the lock while we were eating, on their way to Leighton Buzzard. We were glad to be where we were.

It's been a week!

I'm just not getting the time to post to the blog at the moment. When we're on the cut, I spend much more of my time doing specifically boaty things. Time seems to run differently from when we're in the marina!

Last Monday was positively warm as we moved on down through Milton Keynes. It's really a very pleasant town from the canal.

Stoke Hammond Lock

On Tuesday morning, moved off just behind NB Frogmore, and shared locks with them Soulbury Three Locks and Leighton, after which they moored for lunch and we continued to Leighton Buzzard Tesco for shopping and lunch. Frogmore arrived there just as we took off again. But now we met up with NB Labyrinth, sharing Grove Lock and Church Lock with them before we both moored. Like a lot of the canal recently, it was rather shallow here, and an awful sound came from the bowthruster as Grace tried to move the bow off shallows. It had me thinking the propellor was trying to mince bricks, but fortunately no harm was done.

NB Labyrinth

The couple on Labyrinth were staying here to explore for a day or so, so we moved on alone. Slapton Locks, Horton and the two Ivinghoe Locks, nothing new for us, and all very pleasant and without incident. We moored at bottom of Seabrook Locks and I did a reccy for better moorings further down. There were, so we moved on to just below Marsworth Locks, where we found Frogmore already tied. We stayed for night, hoping to share the Marsworth Flight with them the next day.

Marsworth Bottom Lock

NB Frogmore

I was getting very annoyed by this time. I'd apparently left my cheap camera at the house the other week, so had nothing to use while I was locking. My other cameras - my phone and a decent Fuji camera - were too precious for me to risk whilst at work. But it was costing me some good photos, and that's annoying!

Frogmore had already left when we started up the nine Marsworth Locks. We stopped for services at the Marsworth Junction (with Aylesbury arm), and were amazed at the new housing which had sprung up since we were last there, replacing the grotty old BW buildings. The services are so much better, too.

I was quite glad to get to Marsworth Top Lock!

Wendover Arm

The Marsworth Flight had felt like a bit of a long haul, and i was glad to get to the top. Passing through the junction with the Wendover Arm, we decided to add this t our return journey. It sounds very pleasant.

It had started to rain on our way up. Now, it was rather heavier, so we stopped just before Bridge 136 for lunch, and until the morning. The concrete edge against which we moored had a ridge protruding foot or so below waterline mooring, and I had to resort to tying fenders onto the ends of the normal fenders to keep us from continually bumping against it.

It rained all night.