A short day and an unlikely meeting.

We took yesterday off, intending to avoid the thundery showers which didn’t actually materialise, It did rain a little in the evening, but through the day it was warm and muggy.

Feeding time for the little ones…


We left it until gone half-ten before we got going this morning. With not far to go there was no point joining the queue of early starters at Branston Lock.

As it was we couldn’t have timed it better, the lock was full and a boat had arrived below, so they opened the top gate for us and we just motored in.

Twenty minutes later we were pulling in on the moorings just past Bridge 33e so I could make a visit to Morrisons. We needed perishables, and I had a package waiting at the Amazon Locker there.
A week or so ago I had a good sort out, setting aside lots of old software on CD that isn’t needed or won’t run on this laptop. Some even as far back as Windows 95!
After that I went through a bag full of old charging and connecting cables, discarding those that I couldn’t find anything to plug into. It was only afterwards that I realised I’d also dumped the charger for Mags’ phone, an old Sony Ericsson. She doesn’t like touch screen phones…
Anyway, I rooted through the old phones we have and found a perfectly useable Nokia N73, but of course I’d thrown out the charger for this one too…Hence the visit to the Amazon Locker to pick up a new one I’d bought online. Lesson learned.

That done we cruised on a little further, pulling in temporarily just before Shobnall Marina to wait for a boat to move off the wharf tucked in under the towpath bridge leading to Shobnall Basin.


While we were waiting I made a call to Dave and Barbara whose boat, Liberty Belle, is moored here. I was surprised to hear that they were on the way there from home, and would be there in 15 minutes! It was all very flukey. We nearly didn’t move today, so we’d have missed them. They nearly didn’t come to the marina today. They'd got held up by roadworks on the way so they might have been and gone before we got there. And if I hadn’t rung we might both have been there at the same time without knowing! Karma, I guess.
Anyway, we made plans to meet up for a cruise in a couple of weeks time. They joined us for a quick drink, but had to get going as they were already later than planned.

We moved on another half mile or so, and pulled in on the offside moorings at Shobnall Fields.
Great for dogs with the playing fields alongside, but not any more for Meg. She did enjoy sitting out on the grass for an hour after we pulled in though.

Locks 1, miles 2