(continuing the story of moving Willow from Buckby to Northolt)
I'd had problems lighting the fire the previous day - even firelighters struggled to get the coal burning. We'd had a small amount of kindling on board which was more successful, so before setting off we collected twigs and small pieces of wood from the hedge at our mooring.
The water had ran out in the night so when we reached the bottom of the Stoke Bruerne lock flight we refilled the "tank".
Why the inverted commas? Because the water storage unit is a large blue bag. It seems to work, but doesn't hold a vast amount. This necessitates frequent refilling - every couple of days - but at least it doesn't take long each time.
Some of the top gates on the flight were very difficult to open owing to the high water levels in the pounds. This meant that water cascaded over both top gates and bottom gates when the locks were full, and gave an effective difference in level of at least an inch, against which I had to push the top gate open. At the worst of these a dog walker fortunately came by at just the right moment and gave me a hand. I couldn't do it on my own. And, of course, I should have taken a photo of the flooded locks, but my camera was on the boat and I wasn't. So here's Soloman's Bridge (spelling according to Nicholson) looking back towards Castlethorpe in the distance.
Then followed a very pleasant run in the morning sunshine to Cosgrove, where my dad disembarked to look for a paper shop. There wasn't one, as I think we knew, but he enjoyed the walk and rejoined Willow as I was taking it through Cosgrove Lock. While descending the lock a convoy of Wyvern Shipping hire boats winded just below it. We joined the tail of the procession to Milton Keynes, but we lost them for a bit when we stopped at Wolverton for shopping. There we crossed the canal near the station and found a large Tesco's, where we bought everything we needed. Except I forgot toothpaste.
Cosgrove iron trunk aqueduct with two Wyvern boats in front
Wolverton visitor moorings looking westwards
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