Back to Foxton

The cunning plan was to pull Sanity Again back onto the services point (we were just round the corner from it) and do a pump out first thing, before the place got busy with Canal Boat Club turn rounds. This would have worked, except that the card reader on the pump out machine wouldn't accept the card I'd bought for this very purpose when we arrived.

So we hung about until the Union Wharf staff rolled up at half eight, when Malcolm started the pump for us and left us to it. This has the advantage, as Acen's crew has already observed in a recent comment, that you can carry on pumping and rinsing until you've got the tank as clean as you want. We ended up with the new gauge reading lower than we've yet seen it, so were well pleased with the final result.

Sanity Again was then winded the easy way. Sheila held the bow line through a ring on the wharf, and I motored the stern round. It helped that it's been pretty calm all day, mind, but it did all go like clockwork. (If you except my belief, I'm told, that Sheila can jump an eight foot gap. It seems I thought she could rejoin the ship a bit earlier than was feasible.)

The continuing warm and calm weather made for a pleasant potter back along the arm. A duvet cover was washed as we went along, and was just about done as we arrived at Foxton. Sheila was ready to swing bridge 4, but when we got there, there were a whole bunch of BW guys admiring it. Sheila's role seemed to be confined to switching the key switch that unlocks the barriers, and swinging the barriers closed. All the rest was done for her.

We've tied just beyond bridge 3, and I popped up to the shop to order a paper and a loaf of bread for the morning.

After lunch, we improved the shining hour by making the starboard side of the boat shiny too, and then took ourselves for a wander up the flight. Ice creams were indulged in at the top, and we've spent the rest of the day loafing on the bow. Tomorrow, we'll go up the flight and tie at the top, where Elanor is going to rendezvous with us.

W're dog sitting for the weekend whilst she does wrgie things at Eisey Lock on the Cotswold canals.