No Direction

No Direction is our 70ft Narrowboat which is now home to my wife Jayne and myself, it was launched on 4th February 2008.

We spend the Winters in a Marina and cruise in the warmer weather.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

The Plan Goes Wrong.

Monday/Tuesday, 23/24th July 2012.
Cosgrove to Stoke Hammond.
14.5 Miles 2 Locks.

We got going about 10 o'clock on Monday, first stop was Wolverton for shopping, when we got back to No Direction one of the local boat hippies started chatting, he was working his way around to ask for a lift but I saw it coming and all he got was a drink of water.

The Canal wriggles it's way around Milton Keynes, once famous for having Concrete Cows, there's even an area marked on the OS map named Concrete Cows (map ref SP 822 398), the only other thing I know about Milton Keynes is that they sell an huge number of replacement car tyres there due to the amount of traffic islands.

Monday afternoon after a few hours in the sun we decided to call it a day and moored at Simpson close to bridge 92, mooring OK but we could hear a bit of traffic noise from the A5.

We have friends moored at Kings Bromley Marina who have their boat for sale with Great Hayward Boat Sales as they're moving to Scotland, the boat's been for sale for over 8 months  but last weekend it sold, the boat will be gone and our friends will have left for Scotland before we return from this trip, and we have the spare set of keys, no problem Jayne said on the phone, we'll post them recorded delivery.

So after checking the location of a suitable Post Office, we planned to moor by bridge 106, Stoke Hammond and I would cycle into the village and use the Post Office which is also the village shop, so that's what we did, all going well until I walked into the shop and found it quite dark, there was a power cut, not just the shop but the whole village, so, no Post Office services today and the freezers and fridges were off as well, power will be back on at 5 o'clock but the Post Office section will be closed by then, looks like we'll be staying here tonight  so I can zip back in the morning. 

Staff at Willowbridge Marina wait for us to pass
before craning a boat in.

Up it goes.

Hood, a famous wooden narrowboat moored at Willowbridge

The wider the Canal gets, the wider the boats get,
this Dutch Barge is at Stoke Hammond.


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