Rain, grease and sun

I thought it was supposed to be heavy rain this morning. Instead we had what I call light rain, the best sort of rain if you're out in it. Not the all-pervading gets-you-soaked-eventually drizzle, nor soaks-you-in-two-seconds stair rods, but the sort of rain which leaves dry shadows under balance beams.

We did 19 more Hatton-style Grand Union locks, all uphill;  I'll be glad to get back to using the small-eyed windlass tomorrow, when we go up Braunston Locks.

This is Jan steering Jubilee into the bottom lock of the Bascote Staircase.

A CRT team was using a grease gun to regrease the paddle gear on the Stockton flight; I told them about a malfunctioning paddle at Bascote (the towpath-side middle paddle on the staircase).

The rain persisted as we climbed Stockton Locks, then, as it was lunchtime and we were hungry, damp and not too warm, we treated ourselves to lunch in the Boat Inn.

By the time we paused by Heaven Sent to see Julie (she came to us for a cup of tea) it had stopped raining. It was nice to do the Calcutt three in the dry; as we came along the Oxford/GU to Braunston the sun came out.

At Braunston we tied up next to Grace, where Terry and Christine had invited us for tea. We spent an enjoyable evening discussing ways of doing ourselves all the jobs I had lined up for a boatyard to do; we'll tackle some of them in the morning. Thanks for the offer of help, Terry.