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Saturday 27 December 2014

Saturday 27 December 2014 Milton

It was reasonably warm last night but froze hard this morning which meant all the soggy snow was now ice and I couldn’t open the rear slide as it was about half an inch thick. but the morning was bright and clear with no wind.DSCF7922We set off at 1030 am and met several dog walkers and even some toboggans, The polypropylene  ones seem to work well on a thin layer of frozen snow. There was a boat moored just ahead of us last night so all the locks were against us.

The chaps doing the tow path surfacing have found a good way  to stop speeding boat, they put chicanes in the canal, There is DSCF7927about 40ft between the bow of the offside boat and the stern of the towpath one and then again the other side.I wonder if they will do the same for cyclists.

We met our first boat of the day as we approached bridge 31 where the contractors are moored double breasted, it involved me reversing and then us passing on the wrong sides. Just through the bridge are the CaRT services where we stopped to fill with water. That is where I sent yesterdays blog from. Once full I dropped off the bow line and wandered down to the stern, undid the stern line and hopped onboard, never looked behind after I hoped  and pulled away, it was then I heard a bow thruster. The boat we had met earlier must have winded and came through the bridge behind me as I stepped back onboard.

He caught us up at Stockton Brook locks and I apologised for pulling out in front like that, but he got the best of the deal as I back set all the flight of locks for him.

The boat is still on the lock moorings that was there before Christmas when we went up,he is not even at one end, but bang in the middle with one unused bollard each end.DSCF7932 We didn’t see the following boat after this and it was at this point it started to rain. We were considering mooring below the locks but decided to continue on into Milton for the night, to improve the timings for tomorrow. We arrived at Milton at 2 30 pm and found two boats already moored there, we did drop in between them but noticed an overhanging tree which was right over our cabin, if you get light rain this leads to water torture with a constant dripping onto the roof, so we moved to the front of the line. needless to say after we moored up it stopped raining.

Today’s journey map 69 locks, 6½ miles in 4½ hours

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