Away again

The weather has been remarkably good during my forced stay opposite Cassiobury Park enabling me to get the painting finished in the ‘cockpit’ area,

I have left the ‘roses’ panels as they were as I quite like them and didn’t think I was up to replicating them! The weather also meant my neighbours had the BBQ on the go most evenings with the requisite beer flowing but I never indulged too much, it turned very cold once the sun disappeared and the draw of the warm boat was stronger for me than the alcohol and company, but they enjoyed themselves until about 10pm most nights.

I was keen to get moving so this morning about 9am I walked to the lock to get confirmation that we were all systems go again and about 10:30 I said goodbye to Dirk, Declan and Karen who were the only members of the group up and around and set off, I will miss their company they were very helpful, Dirk took us all to Morrisons in his camper van whenever he was going and picked up some smokeless fuel for me when I was running low, unfortunately his boat engine has died, the mechanic gave it the last rites and he now has to find a new one, so until then he will be towed around by one of the group, I hope he gets it sorted soon.

My tentative plan for the day was to get through the next 3 locks and find somewhere to moor for the night but I did not see any suitable spots so plan B was rolled out, this plan is simple, keep going until you find somewhere! So through a further 3 locks and try again, 2 attempts to get to the bank failed and finally I am moored between Hunton Bridge and Kings Langley, there is now a main railway line tracking the canal for about the next  12 miles, hopefully it won’t keep me awake.

A couple of pictures of the journey,

as I was lining up to take the picture of the bridge a walker distracted me by asking for directions so it’s not the best shot, in fact it looks like I am about to plough into it but I wasn’t.

Views from the side hatch

Totals today: 3.5 miles : 6 Locks