Return to Stoke Bruerne, 5 Minutes at the Tiller of NB Verity & a Gift of Beer!

Waking up to blue skies with a day of cruising ahead is an experience to be savoured at this time of year! This was the scene at Cosgrove this morning:



I am now sat on the 24 hour moorings at Stoke Bruerne, sipping the beer that was given to me this afternoon by the ladies on NB Verity, in thanks for my turning their boat for them at Yardley Wharf! We arrived at Yardley at the same time, and I stopped for gas and diesel. I was willing to help them turn their boat so that they could get a pumpout because that was exactly what happened to us the last time we were at that very boatyard! It's a reasonably tight turn in the entrance of Yardley Wharf, particularly at the tiller of a boat I was unfamiliar with! Verity was 58ft, and with me being used to handling the 54ft of Wils, I had a good frame of reference to work by! All went well, and then BEER! Kindly given, and very nice ale it is too...

On I went, passing the below, which made me wonder if I had made a mistake in my choice of transport, this is clearly the way to get around on the cut!:



Am I right?

On the approach to Stoke Bruerne lock flight, I encountered these stunners:



Not their best angle but they were so fine...

When I moored up (on rings! RINGS! GLORIOUS RINGS! I like mooring rings, ok?) I tightened the vee belt that has been squeeking horribly for the first 10 minutes of engine warm up for the last few days. Problem solved! The (heavy, heavy) stern steps came out without a complaint, the right tools were to hand and I now finally have a decent way of tensioning the awkward blighter! Steps back in no problem, engine sounds sweet again. Some days things just work!

I intend to dedicate a significant portion of this evening to Cities in Flight, by James Blish, it's a great novel so far. Grandiose Science Fiction, thus it's a huge direction change from my previous read; Suttree, which would probably rank somewhere in my top ten favourite reads of all time, if I had such a thing. (*trying to pretend I don't have such a thing...*)

The cold is the biggest demon here now, not surprisingly, but when the sun was shining it warmed up very comfortably. There was even sufficient shine for my tiny solar panel to catch some rays! I am looking forward to the evening of the 14th with baited breath.

Which I can see in front of my face.

'Cos it's cold.

But - I have beer!