First Full Day - And Picking Up "Sickle"

(Boat Chalice, initially, joined late in the day by Sickle - posted by Alan)

Moving off at start of day

None of us, (except possibly the dog!), slept very well on the first night aboard - quite an unusual situation, particularly as David was up and dressed before 7:00 am and taking the dog out - an unheard of concept at home.

"Three Locks" - There seems to be no urgency to reopen the tow-path!

We therefore made a fairly early start, but equally were relaxed enough that having stopped in Leighton Buzzard to shop, we stayed tied up and ate a leisurely lunch, (our traditional approach being more likely that we would eat on the move).

We have enjoyed excellent, and largely sunny, weather throughout the day, although it is now very much cooler than some of the very hot days there have been recently.  In fact at times it has been distinctly chilly - enough to prompt Cath to buy another jumper when out shopping!

Unusually for August we didn't share a lock with anybody all day, but also this was one of the first opportunities in a long while to pass through Stoke Hammond "Three Locks" without any volunteer lock keepers in attendance - sorry chaps, but it was actually good to get to work the locks ourselves!

Odin is less concerned by activity in locks these days.

At Fenny Stratford we pulled over alongside "Sickle" to get her ready to move off, so we would again be boating with two boats.  Soon we were ready, and I led with "Sickle", whilst Cath fllowed on "Chalice".  We were determined not to press on too late, so stopped a few miles later on at Little Woolstone.  Much of the canal bank here has some seriously collapsed piling which hardly encourage mooring at this location - however we managed to find one of the largely straight and upright sections.












Middle of Seabrook Locks to Little Woolstone
Miles: 17.3 (Chalice), 3.1 (Sickle), Locks: 14

Total Miles: 21.0, Locks: 15