Whilton

Whilton Marina, Grand Union Canal – Monday 12 August 2013

I spent Sunday relaxing – and after lunch cleaned the roof and starboard side of Ice Breaker (no prizes for guessing which side is the towpath).

First thing this morning a boat went past, nothing to really report except that it had no steerer!!  I watched as it went on down the canal and over the aqueduct – I wonder if it is fitted with remote steering and was controlled from the front.

Once I had gone up through the Cosgrove lock it was just a quiet run to the Stoke Bruerne locks where there was a large queue of boats, fortunately they were all waiting for the water point so I teamed up with a Wyvern hire boat.  It was their second day of the first trip and they were doing all the locks as lessons so I got to stay on the boat end enjoy.  At the top of the flight they stopped for lunch while I went onward to here.  Not everything on the canal is sweetness and light, just before the marina there were a couple of young vandals who were dropping stones onto boats.  The steerer on another boat had pulled over and went to have words having taken pictures.  They then got on their bikes and left.