Moving on up

I woke fairly early at around 6am, I don’t know what’s happened to those 8am awakenings, might be something to do with the afternoon naps J the weather was overcast but not windy. At 7:30 I did a couple of strolls around Aylesbury theatre to the re-cycling bins and did my bit to save the planet. Started the engine at 7:50 and at 8am moved about 100 yards across to the service point to empty the loo, then moved another 500 yards to the water point, there are three water points at Aylesbury, the one outside the service point and the next one along have extremely low flow, I topped up a little bit sometime last week and I reckon the flow is about 100 litres an hour, I have a 900 litre tank, do the math. The third point I discovered has a reasonable flow and by 9:30 I was full to the brim, next stop Tesco one lock further along, moored right outside and topped up supplies, checked the solar panel was still on the roof and functioning and it was although so cloudy I wasn’t getting a lot of the free stuff. The return journey towards the Grand Union doesn’t give me much to say, it was the same as coming down the arm only I was facing the other way and going up the arm. All proceeded well until I reached Lock 12 again, I could not budge the gate, I tried pushing it with the boat in gear but that didn’t work either, I have since found out I was being to gentle and I needed to give it a bit of a bump, anyway as luck would have it the only boat I’ve seen today moving in the opposite direction turned up and I was able again to ask for assistance which was willingly supplied.

I passed Tim and Margaret (N.b. Mollie) who were moored up, slowing down to have quick chat, they are off to London and will probably pass me later. Then as I got to lock 10 I recognised the boat in front of me, I’d also caught up with Carl (N.b Lizzie Jane) , he got through the lock before I reached it but at the next lock I caught him before he had finished, he was stopping at Wilstone as was I, so after mooring up, we had a chat and arranged to go for a drink and a bite to eat, Carl had no food on board despite having past Tesco, he refuses to shop there! I shop anywhere when supplies are low.

So showered and refreshed we walked up to the Half Moon, you remember, famous for its association with the last witch hunt in England, and had a very enjoyable couple of hours discussing the problems of the world, and I had Duck in black bean sauce with stir fry which was lovely accompanied by a couple of pints of Doombar.

I may well stay here the weekend I have TV on BBC only again, not had anything for the last 16 days or so, and Formula 1 is on.

Just one picture, no shortage of water flowing down the arm, most of the locks were like this.

Totals : 5 Miles : 8 Locks