Sunday, April 27th

We woke at 9.45. Such decadence--let there be more of it! Today friends joined us for lunch at the Blue Lias pub (blue lias refers to the local stone). They came through the next lock with us before getting off. Meanwhile, we lucky people carried on down the Grand Union and moored in total peace, all by ourselves, near Splash Bridge (number 29, Leonard!). We went through a staircase lock today, the first one we've done. This is where the bottom gate of one is the top gate of the next, and so you need to make sure the lock below is empty as you drop down, so that when you open the paddles on the top lock, the water fills the bottom lock. (It's easy really!)

We had a go with some scratch polish, to try to remove the marks the trees had made as we brushed past them. It was quite effective,and now you would have to look hard to see where the marks were. The weather was overcast and blowy today.

Monday, April 28th/Tuesday 29th
We continued to drop down towards Leamington Spa, doing the Stockton flight and the Offchurch flight of locks. Have I mentioned that it's always me who does the locks, as I haven't got my courage up to steer through them yet? I'm hoping it will do me some good! Then we entered south Leamington and on to Warwick. It was a real novelty to see the towns which I have known for sixty years, from the canal perspective. The part from Sydenham to Tesco was pretty grotty, yet there was a swan sitting on a nest in full view of everyone and in a very vulnerable position. I did quite a bit of steering today, and felt more confident about it.

We went up the two locks at The Cape of Good Hope (locks 24 & 25, Leonard!) and moored up for the night just below bridge 50. Here I was, back in my home town, on a boat! What ever would my mum have thought? Actually, I think she would envy me, and, if she were alive, we would have had great difficulty keeping her away! We stayed for two nights and caught up with friends. It was a great couple of days. One of our friends even suggested I might take a bath! That's what friends are for, eh Shelagh?! She very kindly came and fetched me on her way home from work, took me to her house, poured me wine and a bath and let me soak! What bliss! We only have a shower on the boat, and I don't really miss a bath, but it WAS great!

Wednesday, April 30th
Today we have no 240v power. We didn't worry too much, as we thought it would recharge itself when we started to move. Friends came to join us on the return trip and stayed aboard for an hour or so. It was good to have company. We went down to the Saltisford Arm and Trev turned the boat superbly, then we started the return trip to Braunston. The weather started off fine, but soon deteriorated, and it threw it down. We were on a timetable and had to keep going. I did the locks, Trev steered and we both got soaked. The power still didn't come back on, and, as we had food in the fridge and freezer, we phoned our boatfitter, and he met us at a road bridge. He flicked a few switches very professionally, and it all came back on! We carried on to Bridge 25, moored up for the night, lit the fire, dried out and were very cosy!

Thursday, May 1st
Today started with heavy rain but fortunately it had stopped by the time we started off. Today, we're heading back to Braunston. Tomorrow, fingers crossed, the engineer comes to commission the Whispergen. We went through most of the locks with some Dutch people we've kept meeting through the week, who are on holiday. It was great, as they helped or rather did, most of the locks, and we were through in double quick time! I steered from the top of Calcutt locks right back to the marina. At last I feel I am in control and not the boat. It's made me feel much better about the whole thing. This time when we went in to the marina, we went in at the opposite end to where we've been before. It's a very tight fit either way, but the way we've been in before has a vicious tree sticking out and we've left several coats of paint on it. So this time we decided we'd fight our way past the moored boats rather than the tree. Trev did it superbly, and we didn't touch another boat, nor scrape the sides!

There was a pile of mail waiting for us (thank you Catharine and Mamdooh!) Our friends receive our mail and forward it to us. When we're off in the summer on our long cruise, they will forward it to us wherever we can find someone to receive it. We had fish and chips for supper, from the Braunston Fryer!

So that has brought us up to date. Tomorrow we shall carry on through Rugby and meet friends at The Rose and Castle at Ansty. Our plans are to go on up the Oxford until we meet the Ashby canal and then turn on to it. The Ashby canal is about twenty-four miles long and has no locks! It is supposed to be a rural backwater, so we're looking forward to it. There will be pictures, soon, I promise!!

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