And we’re off…..

Having loaded up the boat over the last few days, cleaned and polished it to within an inch of it’s life, we set off this morning from Brinklow Marina.  It was raining when we awoke (oh, what a surprise!) but by the time we were ready to leave the sun was peeking through the clouds.  We struggled against the howling wind to leave our pontoon without crashing into the boat moored opposite – we were warned before we moved to Brinklow that it was very windy, and it is! 

Once out on the cut the wind was only breezy.  Ozzy was happily in his usual place on the locker, with lots of new smells and sights to keep him interested.

Through Rugby and eventually to Hillmorton Locks where only one of each of the 3 duplicated locks was in operation – it took rather longer to get through than usual with a short queue building up going our way, and quite a long one to go down.

Soon afterwards we had a heavy shower of rain lasting about 20 minutes, Rog got a bit damp, but Ozzy and I went inside.

We are moored now near Willoughby on some familiar moorings, about an hour out of Braunston.

I probably won’t blog every day this trip. I’m finding it difficult to keep it interesting these days, so I’ll probably just blog once a week or so unless there is something of interest to report.

We are heading to Banbury on the Oxford canal to collect a new crew member, our eldest granddaughter Flo, who is coming out on her first trip with us during half term week.  Just for a few days, without Mum and Dad.  If all goes as planned, we will return to Banbury mid-week, and swap her for our middle granddaughter, Milly, returning her to Banbury on the Saturday.  Hopefully the weather will be kind to us, and they won’t be too bored!

10 miles today, and 3 locks.