At 11:41 precisely......... 17th September 2018

Monday 17th September

Braunston to Gibraltar Bridge, Grand Union Canal

8.25 miles, 5 locks

Today was to mark a milestone where, to me, time was important, so here was our day:

09:00 - Sue, Chris, the dogs and I left the boats heading for the village.  Sue and I left Chris and the dogs to play ball on the field whilst we went to get the papers.  The weather was not cold, but there was drizzle in the air, so light waterproofs were the order of the day.

10:15 - we left our moorings

10:25 - we were in the first lock with a bit of a problem!

The couple who live in the house by the lock were walking up the flight and from the other side of the bridge they thought the house was on fire!  It was steam from our Eberspacher diesel heater - it has been playing up for a while and is booked in for a service as this should not be happening!

10:26 and the boat above the lock waiting to come down was wondering what on earth was going on

10:32 - The next lock (1) had two volunteer lock keepers on duty - the first we have seen for a very long time.

10:38 - we are nearly down on our last lock together in 2018.  With two lock keepers working the locks we were able to all be on board - a rare treat.

10:39 and we are let out

10:41 - the rain ahead had stopped and the sky was blue

looking back that was far from the case

Sue and I were 'off loaded' to dispose of rubbish 

10:55 - we stopped to use the elsan and fill both water tanks - waterproofs were discarded

There is a good view of the church spire (and the very blue sky) from there

11:37 - Sue is off loaded again, but solo this time

11:40 - the boats are side by side

and Sue is on the bridge to snap the moment that at

11:41 We went left

 and they went right - the end of an amazing summer.

and this is the result of her efforts - thanks for sending the photos to us, Ken

On 31st May 2014 when we met up to head to the Bedford Festival, Sue captured our arrival from the very same bridge

31 May 2014

I reckon the four of us have spent 65 days and 68 nights in the same place since we met up on 8th May.

It has been a brilliant summer – we could not have asked for better weather, the time with Sue and Ken has been wonderful and we really enjoyed such a leisurely time on the River Great Ouse whilst they were enjoying time with their grandchildren.

We are heading along the Grand Union to get back to Droitwich Spa Marina.  Sue and Ken are heading up the Oxford Canal to make it to their new winter moorings at Aston Marina.

Round the corner for us the land suddenly opened up - the wind was blowing and fleeces were required

We had an uneventful, but slow (there are a lot of moored boats to pass) to the three locks at Calcutt, having turned right at Napton Junction at 13:10

 13:25 - Just as we arrived at the locks a boat was there getting the lock ready and we were able to go straight in

The boat we shared with was only doing one lock, but a boat we met last year at Tewkesbury (King's Ransom) was just leaving the second lock,so that was ready for us and then there were two coming up in the bottom lock.

13:50 - in just 25 minutes we were out of the bottom lock - I hope this bodes well for the locks ahead of us on this canal. I suspect we have had our good luck for a while!

14:30 - we were moored up before Gibraltar Bridge. It is a quiet mooring and apart from walking the dogs we have had a quiet afternoon during which the wind dropped, the sun came out and we ended up in shirt sleeves - although autumn is definitely upon us.

 A rather poignant day.  We have, however, very many happy memories to see us through the winter. We may meet up with Sue and Ken at New Year, but will definitely see them at the end of January when we are both booked to see a play at the RSC, Stratford.