Having made such good progress with "Sickle" at the weekend, all that was required was to complete the final leg to her home base. I'm not confident single handing "Sickle" through any significant number of locks, but after the weekend there was just one shallow lock remaining, making bringing her back on my own a realistic prospect.
The ornamental bridge, Cosgove |
What I know from experience, if I am to put in significant mileage on my own. is that time spent get everything spot on before you leave is actually time well spent. There is nothing more galling than to set off, only to have to pull over again, because something has not been checked, or is not as it should be.
Cosgrove Lock |
Linford Wharf |
It has been quite an epic trip - our first really big one with "Sickle", albeit much of it done in stages as weekend only moves. Sickle has been away from her home mooring for two months, and we have been aboard for at least 29 of those days, albeit that on about 4 of those we didn't move, and were simply using "Sickle" as a base.
FOOTNOTE:
As the rather boring pictures on today's post rather prove, one of the consequences of single-handing is that any photos tend to be only of "boat moored up", "boat in a lock" or "shot taken with the roof of the boat as a foreground". It seems you have to look at other people's blogs on such days for any "boat moving" pictures, and it so happened I passed Adam on "Briar Rose" between Cosgrove Lock and Wolverton aqueduct. Lo and behold, his blog post here does show a picture of me at the tiller! Nice to "meet" you, Adam!
Weedon Embankment to Stoke Bruerne Bottom Lock to Fenny Stratford
Miles: 17.3, Locks: 1
Overall totals for extended trip....
Miles: 335.0, Locks: 265
Good to meet you today, even if it was very briefly.
ReplyDeleteIn the middle of writing this comment, a comment from you arrives on my blog! I was single handing myself today, and didn't even manage to take a photo of the lock - I was concentrating too much. But it is our local lock, so I've already got plenty of photos of Briar Rose going through it!