A lovely weekend

On Saturday I visited my son and his partner and held my granddaughter for the first time, I took my son out for a beer (wetting the baby's head it's a tradition).

Saturday evening I visited my sister and enjoyed her company along with a Chinese meal and an introduction to the new man in her life.
Sunday lunchtime I met up with the ex and both my daughters and we went out for a quick meal as my youngest was working starting at 1pm.
I was back on the boat by mid afternoon having thoroughly enjoyed the visits, and surprisingly it was not as cold as I thought it might be, but I still got the stove lit straight away.
This morning I was watching the weather closely, the forecast for today and the next couple of days is not great and it was quite windy but I decided to move today and hope the wind died down a little. So at 10:30 I set off past

Apsley marina







then underneath the very modern pedestrian bridge

and through the first lock (67) then a short stop on the Sainsbury 24hr moorings to get supplies, you can get your shopping trolley right up to the boat so I took advantage and bought a few bottles of the cheap french lager along with my food.

I have to say that overall I was a little disappointed with Apsley, I was expecting a more oldey worldey place when in fact it is mostly retail parks and fairly modern.

Lock 66 is immediately after Sainsbury and the services are after the lock, so I moved into the lock and just as I started to fill it a C&RT work boat appeared so I stopped and waited for them sharing the lock. Once through I filled the water tank, emptied the rubbish and used the elsan point and then put a load of washing on before moving off again.
Through locks 65 and 64, leaving lock 64 it all went a bit pear shaped, the wind caught the bow as I was closing the gates and blew me around into the trees, I backed up a bit to clear the trees but when I moved forward I became grounded, after a struggle with the wind not helping I eventually got free and moved on to tonight's mooring

at Boxmoor just before lock 63 and almost opposite the Fishery Inn pub. It's winding but I am moored on chains to the piling so I will be fine. Once I was safely moored I swept off the roof, tomorrow I may wash it because the last mooring was beneath trees and the birds have left their mark, or marks, lots of marks!

My back is still a bit sore so tomorrow I will have a walk around and decide whether to stay a few nights or move on Wednesday, the time has come really to begin cruising properly which for me will possibly mean moving on every other day.

Totals Today: 2 miles : 4 locks