Off at Last!

 Thursday 20th August 2020 at Weston-upon-Trent

Only four months late, but well worth waiting for! A wise decision to wait until today as yesterday it poured with rain and today is bright and clear.

We set off mid-morning and Nick, the Marina Manager, waved to us and photographed us from the bridge as we left the Marina. Fabulous to be off at last.

Soon after we set off, our good friends Mel and Peter on nb "Inkling" passed us going the other way; they were going north escorting a friend who was "single handing" on her 70ft boat. It felt strange to pass without stopping. But we waved cheerily!

On the way to Sandon Lock, a kingfisher played tag with us, flying off ahead as we reached it each time. Sandon Lock was full and ready for us to go straight in. Anna, a nice Danish lady, came up to help us, as she and her husband were waiting below the lock to come in after we left. M chatted to her and Anna said that she and her husband had been waiting months to come to England for a canal holiday and hoping nothing would prevent their holiday. M said that it was always the case that things could go wrong - at which point Anna slipped and fell into the lock!

Anna, who was fine, just surprised and very wet, was very good humoured about it and laughingly said that when her husband heard about it, he would "laugh his arse off!" (Astonishing command of the English language, thought M!) We said that henceforth, we would always refer to the lock as "Anna's Lock". She managed to climb out with the lockside ladder but was soaked through. Still, she let M take her photograph for posterity.

We arrived at Weston at midday and moored up outside Bridget and Peter's garden gate. Bridget invited us to join them for tea in their garden at 4:00pm, which was lovely.

We had agreed that M would cook supper but that we would eat it sitting in their garden. We had a super evening and sat in their garden until the stars came out.

Today: 5 miles, 1 lock and 2.1 hours.