It was pretty windy today but not especially rainy — except when a shower came over, and then it really went for it. We set off from our lovely mooring at about 8.45 in a dry spell, and were soon passing the winding hole which is also where the boundary between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire is.
The moorings outside the historic Globe pub were very busy, and I switched to electric as we went past all the boats.
At Leighton Lock, Adrian got off to work the lock which needed emptying. As we were about to go in, a man on a bike told us a hire boat was just coming, so we waited for them so we could share the lock. It turned out one of the crew volunteers with the Mary Sunley 2, the disabled trip boat up on the Macc next door to Braidbar. Above the lock, Wyvern Shipping had a few hire boats in but not as many as we’ve seen in the past. We know they’ve sold off quite a few of them.
We stopped on the shopping mooring, and I did a trip to Tesco to stock up with food, then Aldi to stock up with wine. Then I went to the Homebase garden centre for some shears and a folding saw, so we can tackle some,e of the towpath undergrowth. With all the topping up done, we moved round the corner and moored up on the visitor moorings in front of Flutterby, the Braidbar belonging to our friends Tara and Andy.
They came on board for tea and coffee, bringing their Cavalier spaniel, Amber. It’s the first time Macc has had another dog on his boat, but apart from getting a bit over-excited he was really good.
Flutterby has the Hybrid Marine engine and motor like we do, but is six years old, so Andy showed me how to check the tension of the drive belt — and tightened ours up a bit. He’s also changed his drive belt a few times, but that looks a bit too complicated for me! We had lunch on our own boats, then we went round to theirs to have a look. I did a boat test on it in 2020, but Adrian had never seen the boat, and then we all went into town for a drink at the Black Lion. Just as we were about to set off, the heavens opened and we got soaked, so that delayed our departure for a few minutes. Macc was very excited by everything, particularly that Amber was with us, so his walking into town wasn’t great — but at the pub he eventually settled down and even fell asleep.
We had a really nice couple of hours with Tara and Andy, chatting about all sorts of boating and dog related issues. When we got back, Macc went into his crate and fell asleep within moments. The moorings here in Leighton Buzzard are fine. We almost certainly would not have stopped here if we hadn’t been meeting friends, but the town is close and rather nice.
3 miles, 1 locks. (47 miles, 28 locks)