Back to Marsworth and Beyond

I set off from Wilstone at 9am this morning it was cloudy but warm and very little wind, I had 8 locks to do before I reached the Grand Union mainline again. The first three (8,7 and 6)have to be left empty so as I am going uphill that means walking back to the bottom gates when you are finished and opening a paddle, more time obviously and more walking, but I have developed a fairly good system now for the single locks so it was no real hassle, at lock 5 I met a boat coming the other way so I was able to go straight out leaving the top gate open for them and as I passed the steerer told me there was a boat following so the next lock would be in my favour, I slowed down to a crawl so that they would have time to get through the lock and see me approaching, lovely, straight into lock 4, lock 3 was also in my favour so all was good, then I got to the staircase of locks, 2 and 1, as I am going uphill the bottom lock needs to be empty and the top lock full but the boat who I had past had come down so that meant both locks were empty, again more walking to fill the top lock first but all went well and the onlookers just stood and watched.

In the lower lock looking at the gates to the upper lock

I already had a mooring site in mind but it was all full so I carried on and topped up with water at the service point and then moving further, passing this nice thatched cottage, until I found a mooring spot. I made a cup of tea and was very pleased with my efforts when suddenly the chap in the boat opposite me (a residential moorer) decided now would a good time to cut up some firewood, after an hour of listening to his chopsaw I decided to move on a bit further, so down the two Marsworth  locks and I re-moored in a nice more rural spot with lambs and sheep as neighbours. 

Then I heard this strange noise coming from the fridge so I went to investigate but all was well, it was just a cold beer calling me :-)

The solar panel seems to be performing quite well although it has been mostly cloudy, without it I was only running the fridge through the inverter (it’s a 240 volt fridge) for 3 or 4 hours every other day to conserve battery power and therefore only needing to run the engine every other day, so far with the panel it looks like I can have the fridge on 24/7 and still only need to run the engine every other day, although I am hoping as the sun shines more that should improve even more, so those beers should be cooler, and the food should last longer meaning I won’t have to try to shop daily for meat and other perishables.

Views from the side hatch.

Totals today: 3 miles : 10 Locks