Update from the marina

Having arrived at the marina a week ago I planned to stop for a couple of days and then head up river to join the Grand Union canal at Northampton. The Environment Agency had other ideas and on Friday the river was closed again due to the high flows needed to try to release the many millions of gallons of water held in flood plains across the route. The river us currently running at around 8 mph and is around a meter above normal levels.

The time in port has given me a chance to catch up on a few maintenance jobs like touching up the paintwork, the locks do take their toll on the lower hull. I've also been reorganising my storage to put things I use regularly in easy to access lockers while things like spare bedding go into deeper storage under the bed. The result of course is that I can't find anything now.

I bought a new folding bike today as my full size bike takes up too much room in the rear cabin and us awkward to get in and out. The new bike is much easier to load and seems to ride well too.

The house is let and my new tenant moves in on Monday - can't believe how quickly that happened.

So onto my cruising plans. Assuming the river settles down in the next 3 or 4 days I plan to head up onto the Grand Union and make my way down to Milton Keynes where I'll probably stay for a week to catch up with my old mate Pete Billings. After that I plan to continue down the GU to London and hopefully spend a couple of days at Paddington basin. Will then explore the Regents canal through Central London and head up the rivers Lee and Stort to the north east for a few weeks. By early June I should have made my way up the Thames to Oxford ready to take the train up to York for my daughter's wedding. Then a gentle cruise die not Windsor where my brother will take the boat for a week in late June.

By early July I should be heading along the K&A and spend the summer months visiting Bath and Bristol.

That's enough waffling for one night. I'll keep you updated once I get on the move again. In the meantime feel free to pop in if you are passing Oundle.

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