A windy day - Linford to Weedon Bec

(Boat Chalice - posted by Cath - again)

I took Charlie for a fairly extended walk through the parkland, then back along the other side of the canal.  Alan did various engine checks - the fan belt had become loose, and he wanted to check it.

Unfortunately, we had moored next to a wasp's nest, so Alan opened the back of the boat up to find wasps crawling all over the roof.  He managed to fix the fan belt without getting stung, and we headed off - with wasps realising one by one that they were getting further from home - the last few needed a bit of a push to get rid of them.

"Greenock" and "Bordesley" near Blisworth

I steered for a long way around the northern reaches of Milton Keynes - although the wind made it quite difficult, and you needed to keep a bit of speed on even when passing boats, to stop the boat drifting.

At Stoke Bruerne Alan took over steering, and David and I worked the boat up through the locks.  Once again we worked up with another boat with an efficient crew.  Then, on through the tunnel.

"Clover" and "Fazeley" head South, well loaded.

We kept going, thinking that we would get to Weedon, which we did at shortly after 6 pm.  We moored on the embankment, although it was at the same level as the trains passing through, and was quite noisy.

Possibly the most interesting thing at the "Heart of England" pub.

We got changed, and headed off to the pub - we had decided to go to a 'Two for One' pub, as Alan and I had had some reasonable veggie meals in the one in Braunston.  However, the service was extremely slow, we had to go and ask for them to come and take our food order, and they forgot to bring us one of the side orders (although they did not try to charge us for it).  The food was really not particularly inspiring, and David's pint of orange juice was a staggering £7.20.  OK, they had made it up out of mixer bottles, but it would have been nice to be told that they would have to do that.  Not somewhere we'll be rushing back to.

We were wavering about where to go tomorrow.  The original plan had been to go up the Northern Oxford, but measures due to limited water were making us wonder.  Alan posted a question on the Canal World Forums to try and help us ascertain what the actual situation was, so we could make an informed decision.

Despite the West Coast Mainline next door, we slept well.

Great Linford to Weedon
Miles: 22.7, Locks:8
Total Miles: 44.1, Total Locks:23