Thursday 12th May 2016 in Rugby.
A fine early morning. The weather forecast promised a fine day and was as good as its word.
It was a joy to be cruising in such lovely weather again after a few cold, wet days.
Beside the canal, many fields had been planted with potatoes in the very fine local soil.
This is an interesting stretch of the North Oxford Canal - originally designed by James Brindley as a "contour canal" that twisted and turned to keep to a level. Later, Thomas Telford shortened its length by fifteen miles simply by cutting straight embankments and cuttings. You can still see where the old winding bits went off; many of these are used as moorings or marinas.
The canal may be shorter now, but the long straight bits are not as interesting.
Newbold tunnel is only 250 yards long but it used to have coloured lights along its length providing a light show - now sadly no longer working. It must have been fun!
We were soon in Rugby and lucky enough to find the prime mooring spot next to the little park.
A visit to Tesco and Costa was mandatory, followed by a reconnaissance trip to the new M&S shop over the road. When we were here last autumn the M&S was still in the process of being built - but now it is open. And what good fortune, we discovered a "secret" passage behind M&S straight on to the canal towpath.
Returning to MM, we were surprised and delighted to see nb "Quercus", the boat belonging to Pat Barton and Terry Robertson. Terry was our instructor on our "Helmsman's" course in October 2008. They had obviously gone shopping as the boat was all locked up but R was lucky enough to see them and catch up with them when they returned. They will be at the Crick Show at the end of the month, so we will meet up with them again then.
The beautiful sunshine lasted until sunset and we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and evening.
As the sun went down, the crescent moon was very clear in the evening sky.
Today: 5 miles, 0 locks and 2.7 hours.
Trip: 64 miles, 21 locks and 38.4 hours.
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