Yardley Gobion

Yes! A very pleasant evening in the Grove Lock (pub) last evening.  Up at the usual 6am.  Whilst checking the weed hatch, the plate dropped off its securing bracket and fell through the now open weed hatch onto the canal bottom.  I had visions of having to get into the water to retrieve it, however, after a bit of feeling around with the 'Seasearcher' magnet I managed to locate it and pull it up.   Mental note: Modify weed hatch opening technique.  So the delay was short and we were underway by 7:20.   A brief half hour stop at Tesco and we were on our way again.  The broken down dump of a pub at the Soulbury Three Locks has had a makeover and is broken down no more.   It looks really welcoming and even sports an outside bar.  Here we passed two opposite direction boats, the wind making manoeuvring testing.  The garden at Stoke Hammod lock (sponsored by Wyvern Shipping) looks pretty and well cared for.   The bridge at Fenny Stratford lock now needs a key, but in contradiction to the operating instructions, the key can be removed with the bridge open.   Sensible.  Otherwise coping with multiple boats would be a nightmare.  After the long drag through Milton Keynes where we joined a traffic queue behind a broadbeam (they go very slowly on account of the fact that they are not in any sense hydrodynamic) we finally decided to stop at Yardley Gobion.  Passing Wolverton, the huge blocks of apartments are still not occupied, but the arriage works on the other side seems to be having a sympathetic conversion, though what into is not clear.  Today the weather has been kind.  It is warm, but he wind has been quite troublesome at times.