Whitsun Break - Return to Base

(Boat Chalice - posted by Alan/Cath)

Grove Lock - one before it got really busy!

Not a lot to report today, really - a pretty standard run back to our home mooring from the Leighton Buzzard area - not particularly demanding, but, being a Sunday, I guess, caused it to be fairly busy.

At Church lock we actually ended up being the last of about 6 boats waiting to lock uphill.  This is a very shallow pound below the lock, with the only accessible bank lined with moored boats, and I had already advanced well past the start of the line, on a very windy day, when it became apparent I had no chance of getting to the side anywhere to wait for the lock.

I therefore practiced my "skills" at trying to stay in the channel, without ending up wrapped against other boats, or being totally blown onto the offside shallows.  I think if I were being judged, I'd not have been awarded more than about 6 out of 10 if I'm honest!  Not my finest hour, but the wind was in gusts, and quite unpredictable.

By Ivinghoe most of the boats ahead had given up the struggle, or gone to home moorings, but a boat who had been working ahead of us with another, that then dropped out, turned a lock they had just been through for us, once they realised we were now another boat on our own.  This meant we could catch them up quickly, and start to share.

They proved to be very good company and efficient, (we have actually shared with them before), and, almost too soon, we were back at base, with another trip completed, (our first to feature two boats together, if only brieffly in the middle).

Old Linslade to Cook's Wharf
Miles: 8.5, Locks:10
Total Miles: 95.2, Total Locks: 46