Grove Lock Wednesday 16 September 2015

We woke to sunshine, coming in through the hedge, I was a bad forecast so we were away at 8 am to get the best of the day, in the end it didn’t start raining properly until 3 pm and then we only had another half hour to do.

We tied up another boat, this one the bow  mooring pin had pulled out, but the ground is so soft I hope it holds until the owner returns.

The pound above Stoke Hammond was very low and all the boats on long term moorings were sitting on the bottom. There were two Volockies working the Soulbury Three and one of them asked if I had passed a hire boat that had run aground, which I hadn’t. I found a lot of mud just below Stoke Hammond Bottom Lock. The two Volockies said it had been a slow day with only 4 boats all morning.

We  stopped outside Tesco’s  at Leighton Buzzard for a bit of lunch followed by a bit of shopping, I don’t know if its because Aldi share the same car park but I have never seen so many reduced price tickets in Tesco’s before. Returning to the boat it was spitting with rain and this got progressively worse, just before moving off our young student friend passed us, we caught up with him just as he was about to leave Grove Lock. Between the town of Leighton Buzzard and Grove lock a new boat yard has opened up, it reminds me very much of the one that use to be down the South Oxford canal.

As our target for today was Grove Lock we decided to moor below it for the night at 3-30 pm. by now it was raining quite steadily. I was quite impressed with the tables and seats outside The Grove pub.

Today’s Journey

13 miles, 5 locks in 5½ hours