Monday
broke to glorious blue skies, sunshine and a light frost so it seemed we had
picked the perfect day to cruise out of Aylesbury. Karen moved the car whilst I filled up with
water and set off for a mini-cruise to meet Karen and Buddy walking down the
towpath after they had parked the car.
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| Passing the, ‘Thank you for visiting Aylesbury basin’ sign |
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| Turning out of the basin |
The first
lock wasn’t set for me and it took a while to empty it as there was so much
water in the pound above; water was flooding over the top gates almost as fast
as it was escaping through the bottom paddles.
The lock
was one of the ones that was closed in November while new lock gates were
installed which can be seen in the next photo.
When there are double gates on narrow locks like these the lock wheeler
can usually step from a closed gate across the gap to the other side or vice
versa. This avoids the need to walk all
the way around the lock to open or close both gates.
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| The new lock gates at lock #16 |
The
Aylesbury arm, although with double gates, is a bit different. The hand rails are set such that it’s
practically impossible to make the step across; in addition, the locks,
although narrow, are slightly wider than most narrow locks. When doing the locks on your own you can
still open both gates without walking around the lock. This is done by standing
on one gate and pushing the other one open and then open the gate you are
standing on. As these were new heavy
gates, I couldn’t quite get the momentum going and ended up walking around
anyway. Not that it really mattered as
it was a lovely day, I wasn’t in a rush and there were plenty of onlookers
chatting away, interested in seeing the lock operation.
As I was
leaving the second lock a passer-by offered to close the gate behind me which
was jolly nice of him. It avoids having
to leave the boat in the lock head whilst stepping off to close the gate. Usually lock heads are quite long and it’s
quite safe to leave the boat while closing the gate. Sometimes there are also handy bollards to
temporarily tie the boat to for added security.
On the
Aylesbury arm there are neither bollards nor long lock heads so it’s a matter
of leaving a line lying across the ground hoping that the wind doesn’t take the
boat away. I’ve yet to lose the boat in
that scenario but have had many occasions where I’ve had to stop closing the
gate and hurry back to grab the line to pull the boat back before completing
the operation.
I could
see Karen and Buddy in the distance as I was moving away from the lock. When we met up, Karen asked me to pass her a windlass as she
wanted to walk up to the next lock to get it set.
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| Karen caught me having help at lock #15 |
We moored
up after the third lock at a place called Broughton and stayed there for
lunch. In the end we stayed all day as
it was peaceful and a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the
basin.
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| Our mooring at Broughton for Monday night |
During the
afternoon I did a bit more revising for my Marine Radio Short Range Certificate
and when I was extra bored, I spent some time rearranging my email
folders. I have always had two folders for
holidays, one for upcoming holidays and one for old holidays. The upcoming holidays folder would contain
details associated with holidays like flights, accommodation bookings etc. After a holiday was finished the mails would
be moved to the old holiday folder. I
noticed for the first time ever that there were no mails in the upcoming holidays
folder. I suppose I shouldn’t complain
as it’s only six weeks until we move to France and many people would call that
an extended holiday.
Tuesday
was an early start as we had to be in Leamington for our annual dental
appointments by nine. Early starts mean
that we have to wake Buddy up and get him to the car where he falls fast asleep
again. We arrived with 20 minutes to
spare, ample time to let Buddy have a quick walk around Jephson Gardens and
have his breakfast.
After the
dentist it was off to Stockton to sit my Marine VHF radio practical and theory exams
which I passed; just as well as it’s a prerequisite for us living on the boat
in France although most of the stuff I had to learn would never be required in
inland waters! Karen took Buddy off for
a walk while they waited for me and picked up some eggs from a lady we used to
use when ccing in the area and Karen was touched that the lady remembered her.
Steve (the
owner of the Willow Wren training centre) was on form and as chatty as
ever. Ironically, he said he doesn’t use
the egg lady as she chats so much and he can’t get away. We finally got away from Steve and headed for
Braunston where we picked up our extra long lines and zig-zag fenders – a job
we have been putting off for what feels like months. I know we said recently
that there was nothing else to buy for the boat and that was true as we had paid
for the lines and fenders back in November.
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| Fenders so heavy I had to have a rest carrying them back to the boat |
We then
popped in to Long Itch to see Chris & Sue’s new home they have recently
moved to there. A lovely location and it
seemed ideally designed for people who’re going to be living on their boat for
most of the year. We went for lunch at
the Stag in Offchurch and heard about their cruising plans for this year. It made us feel quite nostalgic as it
reminded us of our visits to the places they were planning on visiting, the
hills they planned to climb etc. By the same
token, they were excited for us and looking forward to hearing about our
foreign travels.
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