Gath'ring winter fuel

It was windy last night, and Jubilee rocked a bit on our mooring just below Stoke Bruerne Bottom Lock. We made a leisurely start in the morning as we wanted to call in at Baxter's boatyard by Kingfisher Marina in Yardley Gobion for some diesel and one or two other things. We knew that Baxter's opens at 1100 on Mondays, but, as we discovered, not on new year's eve. Oh well, we'd seen a fuel boat at Cosgrove a couple of days ago, perhaps it will still be there tomorrow.

On the way up, Jan had spotted a fallen tree blocking the towpath just north of Thrupp Wharf. So, shortly after pulling away again from Baxter's, I stopped by the tree and proceeded to clear it away.

It doesn't look much in the photo, but, believe me, it took a lot of effort and time with the bow saw to deal with it.

It should last Ally and Ben the rest of the winter! Well, until February, anyway.

By the time I'd finished sawing and tidying it was getting dark. We'd planned to reach Cosgrove today, but when we saw the Navigation Inn at Thrupp Wharf we decided to stop there and check out the menu.

One of the disadvantages of winter cruising is the restricted daylight hours. Conversely, one of the benefits of winter cruising is that you stop early, and so you can get in at the beginning of meal times. The Navigation was serving food from 1800 to 2030, when a new year's eve disco/party was due to start. I had the braised ribeye pork - very good - and Jan had the salmon ("lemony"). We were back on board by 1930 (and will, no doubt, have a very boring early night! New Year's Eve somehow just doesn't do it for us. Let's hope BBC Radio 4's signal will be better here than where we were last night.)