Morgana Le Fey and the very windy day

After a night of being gently 'serenaded' by the sound of passing goods trains we continued our journey along the Leicester Section of the Grand Union. Our autumn/winter cruising plan is to travel for about two hours per day. This means we don't get too cold or wet when the weather is nasty. If the weather is particularly bad we take a day off.

Today started fairly mild but windy, we weren't planning to go far but the trip included seven locks. We made fairly rapid progress even though the locks were against us.The locks are close together in a group of four then a group of three. I was able to walk on and set the next lock while Ray closed up the previous one. As we negotiated the sixth lock we saw the rarity of an incoming boat at the next lock so I didn't have to walk on to set that one.

The view from my window

The sun was shining beautifully but the wind speed had increased substantially so we decided to stick to our original plan and find a spot to moor.The wind was blowing us onto the towpath side of the canal so strongly that once we had stopped Morgana didn't move an inch even before we had tied our mooring lines. We enjoyed the autumn sunshine looking across the fields towards Wistow but the weather has deteriorated this evening and it is now raining.

We have a 'boat maintenance ' day planned for tomorrow so it won't matter if the rain carries on.

Today's journey 2.5 miles and 7 locks

So far this year we have travelled 789.2 miles, 630 locks,  50 swing bridges, 23 lift bridges and 27 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 1990.9 miles, 1716 locks, 106 swing bridges, 61 lift bridges and 67 tunnels