A place in the country..

We had an uninterrupted night on the pontoon moorings in Union Wharf. A few bangs and whistles early on in the evening, but it quietened down later on. We’re lucky in that Meg doesn’t bother about fireworks. Poor old Bruno used to be a quivering jelly every night at this time of year.

I took Meg for a walk this morning, picked up a paper on the way back, then went to the manager’s office to square up for our overnight stay. At £5.50 including electric hookup, it’s got to be the cheapest serviced mooring spot on the network. TV reception is terrible though, and the only chance of getting a satellite signal would be from the moorings directly below the office.

The wind picked up as predicted last night. I was out at 9 o’clock, balancing on the gunwale (the finger pontoons are only about 15’ long), moving our centre line from the roof ring to a fitting on the hull. As this was the only tether forward, the bow was swinging from side to side, making the boat list and causing the most appalling creaking noises as the rope, passing through the fairlead, tightened then slackened. Dropping the fixing point to deck level stopped the row.

This morning wasn’t as wet as expected, though. We set off for our early walk in the rain, but it soon stopped. Then we had a sharp shower as we were topping off the water tank prior to leaving. The rest of the short trip was dry.

More Autumn colour
Sedgley’s Bridge, no. 9
We only travelled 2½ miles, to an out of the way spot I’d noticed on the way up. We’ll stay here for the rest of the weekend, then back to Foxton and our Tesco delivery at Black Horse Bridge on Monday morning.

Locks 0, miles 2½.