A good cruise

We left our mooring at Winkwell this morning about 9 o'clock

I’m walking to set locks today, the first job was to operate Winkwell swing bridge 

 Here comes Still Rockin’ now

Whilst in the first lock of four today a narrow- boat has pulled out of the marina below 

… unfortunately he’s going  our way which means that he will use all the locks before us leaving us to reset them before continuing.











Daffodils in bloom at Fishery Lock

Richard, the other half of Jules Fuels comes towards us as we leave Boxmoor top lock.  We probably won’t see them again until much later this year.







We moored up at midday below Boxmoor bottom lock at the service block at Apsley 

 C&RT hoppers and tugs lined up probably for use at Kings Langley lock where maintenance will start in a few days

It’s been quite busy here too this afternoon with CRT loading materials and boats cruising past.

It’s been a good cruise today and we’ll be off again in the morning.

Not as far as we intended!

 Pulled the pins from Bourne end just before 9 this morning

After ¼ of a mile and into our 2nd lock George announced that it was raining (I couldn’t even see or feel any rain) and that we should pull in below the lock (Winkwell) rather than get wet. The very, very slight drizzle had cleared up by the time we’d finished mooring up at just 10 o'clock, but never mind there’s a pub here (Three Horseshoes); that’ll save me cooking and I made the executive decision that we should eat our main meal at lunchtime  today rather than this evening.

 And look who turned up a few minutes later, it’s Jules and Richard, hi Richard!

At the Three Horseshoes

 … by the swing bridge

 I’ll have whatever you have says Molly.

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The latest from Blogger Buzz

An update on Google Friend Connect

1 week ago by A Googler

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

A not uneventful cruise today

It was noisy at midnight as the year changed to 2016 at our mooring but we managed to sleep an hour later this morning after the late night and awoke to a frosty morning with a temperature of -3!

… so it was after 10 before we pulled the pins and reversed back to the water point, but there’s a boat already there, was he moored there or just stopped for water?  I saw a man at the front of the boat  with a mug and a bottle but we hoped that he was ready to move off. We pulled alongside him and asked if he was ready to move and he said that he was so we waited and pulled in as he left to fill our water tank before continuing south.

He appeared to be a single hander and the next three locks are all left empty due to leakages through the lock walls so I wasn’t surprised to see him at the next lock.  The lock was empty and the paddles were up but no sign of the man so I dropped the paddles and opened a gate.  He must have heard me and he came out and climbed the ladder onto the lockside with his windlass which was completely unnecessary so he climbed back down the ladder after untying the rope slipping and sliding all over his roof but managed to get onto his deck and guide his boat out of the lock.  As I watched him go I noticed the mug was full of red wine! 

We caught up with him at each of the three locks and at Sewer Lock (above) he was still waiting to go into the lock when I arrived, I think he was inside lighting his fire, so I opened a top gate for him and closed it after he’d entered.  As I opened the bottom sluices he stepped off the boat with his windlass and secured his boat. I suggested that he got back on as George was approaching the lock landing and I knew that he would come and help me with the lock gates.  The guy jumped onto his boat roof and I really thought he was going to go over the side but he managed to stay more or less upright.  I noticed that the wine bottle was gone and his mug was once again full. I just hope that he got to wherever he was going safely.

The sun tried its hardest to show it’s face but didn’t quite make it.

We’d planned to moor up below Sewer Lock before bridge 145 as the towpath doesn’t get quite so muddy and it’s a bit wider there as George wanted to use the chain saw on some logs.  I walked down the towpath to check out the mooring and called to George to pull in in-front of the first boat as it was ideal for what we needed.  The guy on that boat stuck his head out and said 'you’re not going to moor in front of me’ and I replied that we were but we’d leave a decent space.  I heard him muttering something under his breath  and I said that it’d be ok, that we needed a wider space on the towpath to cut some wood, he said it wasn’t ok and disappeared inside; we put in the pins and moored up.

Views from the stern deck.

It was nearly 1:30 by the time moored up and 2:30 by the time we’d had lunch and cuppa and then it went dark and the rain came in buckets!  So there’ll be no cutting of wood today!