Stowe Hill

No locks and a beautiful morning as we cruised the final section to Stowe Hill where we have arranged to leave our boat for the next month. Andrew was to meet us there in order to take Mike back to Devizes to collect the car.

We had also arranged to have a late roast lunch with the joint we bought at the Farmer's Market in Wolverton. As a slow roast joint this entailed fitting in the cooking with cleaning the outside of the boat and cruising along!

We moored just short of Stowe Hill at a winding point so that we could more easily clean both sides of the cabin. Andrew arrived as planned.

The lunch, not too late, went down well even if the pan of gravy decide to tip itself over as service was beginning! At least the Yorkshires cooked well.

As we were preparing to wind the boat in order to proceed to Stowe Hill (at this stage it was the wrong way around) a mooring pin was dropped into the water. Andrew quickly located it with the mooring hook but could not lift it up. Eventually, the only option was for Mike to strip off (partly!) and jump into the water. This very quickly retrieved it after the long time spent trying to hook it up!

We moored for the night on the bank opposite Stowe Hill. Mike went back to Devizes with Andrew where he was shown the new pond under construction. The drive back to the boat was not too tedious although there was a little extra delay at the M40/A43 intersection as a result of an earlier incident just after the southbound slip road.