It's Saturday

So this must be Braunston...

Things actually went well to plan today; we had a moderately relaxed start and were boating just on half seven. It took forty minutes to get up the flight, all the locks being with us and no sign of another boat moving. Once through them all, Sheila decided to steer for a while (her foot is really a lot better) and I went to get the washload under way.

The only thing was, the water wasn't yet hot enough, so I started the Hurricane running to move things on a bit and did look out duty for half an hour. Once the heating had finished, I got the washing machine running and then divided my time between chatting to Sheila at the back and looking out at the front. I took over steering after a while and we plodded merrily on through the rolling fields to the hub of the southern system.

We arrived just as the wash programme finished. A boat was leaving our favourite mooring, just through Bridge 89, and we managed to squeeze the seventy foot of Sanity Again into the space. Braunston is a bit busier than it was this time last year, but not heaving. We had time to walk up to the village and buy meat (the butcher recognises us every year) and some salad stuff from the village shop.

After lunch we took a walk to Midland Chandlers the scenic way, along the towpath to the second road bridge. We found Hadar tied on the 48 hour moorings and had a good old natter with Jo and Keith. We've not seen them for a long while for the very good reason that they are only just back out boating after spending a year tied on the Saltisford Arm. Keith had a very close call with the guy with the big scythe 15 months ago but is well fit now.

Finally tearing ourselves away, we finished our walk and got two replacement buffers for the door catches on the stern doors. I only needed one, but buying two increases the chances that the first one won't follow its predecessors into the cut.

Since then, we've had a quiet time on board. We'll stay put tomorrow and then carry on up the flight and through the tunnel on Monday. Unless the weather looks as if it will be better on Tuesday, in which case we'll stay an extra day. Or not. It depends.