Gently on to Welford Junction

Sally is clearly getting the hang of life on board. She was quite distressed when Elanor left last night, standing looking out of the bow doors and whining gently as she watched her walk across the footbridge back to the car park, but settled eventually, and slept through until nearly five this morning.

It was a fine, calm day at first, so Sheila went off with Sally to walk the first section. I gave them a ten minute start, then set off in Sanity Again to catch them up. This proved quite a challenge. In the clear stretches, we were making around 3.2 mph over the ground, but the presence of clumps of boats on the towpath from time to time meant that I had to slow to 2 mph a lot of the time.

In the end, Sheila turned back after an hour; quite soon we met up and the two of them hopped back on at Bridge 50.

There was a fair bit of traffic through Husbands Bosworth Tunnel. I hung back to let one boat out, then passed two more in the tunnel, and a fourth was on the final approach as we emerged. In fact, he came hurtling round the corner towards me, tunnel light blazing, just as I came out, and had to hold back to let me get clear. He said cheerfully "You always meet at the awkward places, don't you?"

I smiled politely and, since it was such a fine day, refrained from observing that these things are less traumatic if you don't come whistling round a blind corner leading to a tunnel.

The wind has been rising steadily, and I suspect that it may be a bit of a bore tomorrow. We tied at eleven or so at Welford Junction.

I used the time before lunch to mask off the starboard gunwale. After eating, I got the paint and rollers out and gave the gunwale a fresh coat of black sheen. This is a really good place to do it, as it's a nice even concrete edge with rings, not too high to stop you reaching the whole top bend down to the rubbing strake.

Sally has had a further walk; we went up to the lock on the Welford Arm, a pleasant stroll, though the stiles at the beginning aren't terribly dog friendly. Sally's agility training stood her in good stead!