You have reached your destination.

The whole purpose of this cruise back down the Grand Union Canal was to get myself to a more convenient place to leave the boat for a week and visit my family over Christmas, so today I set off on the final leg of the trip in foggy conditions again.

Rickmansworth shrouded in fog at 9:30

It was a short distance to Stockers lock (82) the first of the day, and once again luck was with me as the top gates were wide open beckoning me in.

Not long after setting off the sun began to make an appearance, low and bright making visibility even worse, I was just rounding a bend squinting ahead when a wide beam loomed into view, but it was ok, we both saw each other in plenty of time.

by the time I had reached the next lock Springwell (83) it was quite bright and pleasent cruising.

My departure was overseen by a feathered visitor, he didn't take much interest but stayed put as I closed the bottom gate alongside him, I expect it was a favourite resting place and he is probably bored with narrow boats and their crew.

At Black Jack's lock (85), I love that name, I had a family of German gongoozlers, I was careful not to let them distract me while answering their questions, They assumed I was popping into London for Christmas shopping :-)

Just one more lock and I arrived at my destination, Harefield Marina, so I pulled in and stopped to fill with diesel before moving on to my berth for the next 7 nights. They were the only place I could find with a spare visitor mooring over Christmas, the mooring has no electricity so I am hoping my batteries will be ok to run just the fridge for the week while I am away, calculations say they will but calculations and batteries don't always agree! time will tell.

Current mooring:

Totals Today: 4.5 miles : 5 locks

There will be no posts now until 29th December at least as I will be eating and drinking too much and hopefully not worrying about Quinquireme.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone :-)