Not a lot happening

We have moved every day this week but not very far and nothing noteworthy has happened so I haven't bothered to blog every day.

Wednesday was Mandy's birthday, my presents,  via Amazon and card, posted at Buckby Flight arrived on time so I was happy about that. It was quite a chilly day so we didn't travel far, we stopped briefly at Weedon for bread and milk then carried on as far as Bugbrooke for our overnight mooring.

Thursday was cold but beautifully sunny, I don't mind the cold if it is dry so I took the tiller and let Ray stay in the warm for a while. We pulled in just before Blisworth tunnel to check our tunnel lights then carried on through to Stoke Bruerne. Surprisingly,we didn't meet anyone coming through the tunnel but there were three boats in the tunnel heading our way. Blisworth tunnel is reasonably dry compared to some but the water was pouring down the ventilation shafts like a waterfall.

I was impressed to see a working blacksmith at the tunnel end, it's good to see craftsmen on and beside the canals. We moored at Stoke Bruerne for Thursday night and continued our journey down through the locks today.

This morning very frosty but again very sunny. We set off down through the locks,there is still a lot of water about from the recent rains. The water was flowing over the gates at the second lock like a waterfall. when we were partway down I realised that there was another boat following us so I reset the locks for him and we waited for him to catch up so we could share the last couple of locks. There was ice on some of the side ponds but none on the cut.

We met NB Vectis at the bottom lock, we have met them before around Rickmansworth. They told us there was ice on the canal near Cosgrove. We decided that if the canal is starting to ice up it was better to travel in the middle of the day and carried on to below Cosgrove Lock. At Cosgrove we encountered a meeting/photoshoot  of the Buckingham Canal Society and were included in their photos.

Since my last post we have travelled 19.7 miles, 8 locks and 1 tunnel

So far this year we have travelled 858.2 miles, 669 locks,  54 swing bridges, 23 lift bridges and 31 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 2059.9 miles, 1755 locks, 110 swing bridges, 61 lift bridges and 71 tunnels