The day began slowly, with Andrew loading up his car which he had parked overnight near to Church Lock. By 10 o'clock he was ready to leave and so were we.
It was a lovely bright and quite warm day - this lasted most of the time but with occasional cloudy spells. No rain and the wind was manageable - sometime, but not always, to our advantage.
It is called Church Lock as there was once a small church alongside but it was converted into a delightful home some time ago.
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| Autumn weather |
Just after passing through Slapton Lock we saw a sign advertising stays in a wigwam! Not that they look like real wigwams, more like unusual shaped lodges!
A little further and we passed a boat that perhaps does not justify inclusion in our Unusual Boats gallery, but its stern seat, made from part of a lock balance beam, is definitely out of the ordinary!
We shared the next few locks until lunch time with a liveaboard couple who started this way of life back in March. They are now wondering what it will be like in winter but at least they have properly researched the stoppage lists so that they are not caught in the wrong place.
There is only a rare swing bridge on this canal.
Just after Pitstone we pulled in for a lunch break. There were just two more locks before Marsworth Junction. Mike would rather have liked to go down the Aylesbury Arm. It is a long time since the only time we have been there - long before Take Five. Every other time we have passed there has been some reason for not being able to go down - several times because it was shut with broken or collapsed locks. However, he was unable to persuade Christine of this plan - she is looking forward to a few slower days after the rather hectic time whilst Mike was away from the boat.
As a result we moored up early, not wanting to tackle the Marsworth flight which would have taken us not far short of sundown. Mooring at the top of the flight is always a bit uncertain and having to go on along the summit pound for a night mooring is not a good idea as it is rather overlooked by dark trees.
So, seeing a good mooring that we have stayed at before with proper rings - although it was much emptier that we have ever seen it - we pulled in and tied up, rather earlier than usual.
In the past we have stopped here so that we could go to the nearby church for Sunday morning. having tied up we have discovered that there is no service there tomorrow!
The early stop gave us time to try an experiment with the rear doors. One of these doors came adrift just before Mike left for his journey home. Although Andrew tried to have it re-welded at the marina where they called for fuel, it was very windy and they had trouble coming alongside (see their blog) and so could not reach the maintenance area.
Andrew also suggested that we could try a steel epoxy glue as a short term measure and we bought some yesterday in Leighton Buzzard. We have now applied it and await the morning before we will really see if it hangs on at all! (OK, so it is not a good picture but until the support is removed we an only take a photo by leaning over the edge!)
8.8 miles - 9 locks
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