Only 3 miles from home

I cruised for almost 7 hours today - 8 locks and 15 miles and Blisworth Tunnel. I thought I might make it back to Olivia's mooring but at 7.30pm I ran out of steam and decided to moor up. I am going home tomorrow by public transport. It will take about 4 hours, needs 3 buses andwill cost around £10. So tonight I'll be sorting out my washing and my perishable food, etc. I'll not be cruising again until the end of the month when I'm off to Cropredy for the Fairport Convention festival.

Two good cruising days

The last two days (Saturday and Sunday) have been productive and I am now through Milton Keynes and about two days from home. Nothing exciting happened but I shared locks with various people and we exchanged stories. Following a quite windy day, this evening is beautiful: warm and calm. I had a little walk and then sat on the deck with a nice glass of cider.

A beautiful spot

After 12 locks and 6 miles I have moored at a really nice place in the midst of the Chiltern Hills. Rose you might remember it as the place where there were peacocks. Although you might not, as you were in agony with your foot at the time. I had to go through a manual swing bridge on my own today. What a laugh. Up until now I have always had help. The usual drill is to send your crew over the bridge where they swing it around to let the boat pass. The mechanism is on the offside so the only way over is to cross the bridge. Obviously this means the bridge operator is on the offside and the boat is on the towpath side. I've read about how you do this when you are single handed, so I took my bow rope across the bridge with me and operated the bridge. So far so good. I pulled the boat through but then realised that the bow rope was too short and I needed a longer one so that I could keep hold of Olivia (remember she weighs many tons). I had to devise a creative way of stretching back onto Olivia to get the centre rope without falling in. By now the bow was in the bushes off side and I had run out of bow rope so had to let it go. Luckily the centre rope was fine, I pulled her through on it, shut the bridge, crossed back over, pulled her back to me using the longer rope and off we went. All the time I was doing this there was an angler sitting RIGHT NEXT to the bridge on the off side. He didn't look at me nor speak a word. By the way, those bloody peacocks are still at it.

Remember that black cat....

It did take three hours to get to Berko - 8 locks and 3 miles. I moored up to get some bread and wandered into a charity shop. There was Charlie having a banter with the assistants. I set out to do the next 6 locks and I got caught up by Charlie, he was with Valerie :~( . But what a lovely guy he is. Very personable. If only I was 20 years younger!! Whilst sharing locks we also shared some organic cider. How very civilised. I said I'd see him again in 3 years time!!!!!! I'm now at a place called Cowroast. Not very vegetarian-friendly. It signals the start of more spaced out locks (although there is a flight of 7 not far away). Thank goodness for that.

My lucky black cat?

Last night, after I'd moored up, I felt a "presence" on the boat. I had a look round and got the fright of my life when a little black cat stuck it's head out of my "cubby hole". It was from the neighbouring boat and found it's way onto mine three or four times. He was a little, lucky black cat. Today I didn't get soaked. That's not to say that it didn't rain but I just seemed better prepared! I did 9 locks, 1 swing bridge of the type where you get to stop the traffic and covered the grand distance of about 3 and a half miles. As I was going through one lock, a rather nice looking guy says "It's Sheila, isn't it?"to which my response was "Charlie?!". I met him three years ago (he has a mooring here) and he actually remembered my name (It's not so amazing that I rememberedhis ;~) ). Amazing. This evening I walked up to Berko and had a drink in one of the several canalside pubs. It took me just over half an hour to walk but tomorrow it will take close to 3 hours to cruise. Isn't it mad?

Despite heavy rain, thunder and lightning...

I cruised for 6 hours today. Going through 13 locks and covering 8 miles. I'm not far from Hemel Hempstead so covering reasonable ground. Met some nice people today who I shared locks with. While moored for lunch a narrowboat drifted past me going backwards quite fast. There was no-one on board and it had pulled its pins (or someone had pulled the pins). I tried to rescue it but it was too heavy for me so I just watched her drift out of sight. That will be a surprise for someone when they come home from work tonight! I tried to moor near my friends from the locks but it was a bit shallow for me - Olivia has what is known as a deep draft. However, I was pleased as they moored next to a boat with a very noisy generator. I moved a bit further on, near a railway line but at least the noise isn't constant. Got soaked twice today so am contemplating lighting a fire to dry out a few items. Think it might be a nice thing to do tonight. hoping for better weather tomorrow :~)

Just a quick note...

I have moored just before Batchworth Lock. Had a pretty good morning but when I stopped for lunch it got quite windy and showers on and off, so decided to stay put. Tomorrow's weather will be similar to today but much less windy than originally forecast so should be able to catch up a bit then. This is as good a place as any as there is a Tesco nearby if I run short of anything.