False Start

Rachael and I both woke early this morning, Rachael asked if I wanted to get up, I heard the rain on the roof, said no and turned over and went back to sleep for another hour and a half. We did both eventually get up about 8:30am, it was still raining but we were hopeful of a start around 10:00. We did get away at 10:30. We were just finishing off this first lock when gentle rain began to fall, Rachael walked to the next lock and by the time she was there the gentle rain had turned into a major downpour. Rachael has the beginnings of a cold already so I was fortunate that there was a mooring next to Sainsbury's to tie up to. I called her back, we locked up and headed off to Sainsbury's to pick up a few things we had forgotten yesterday, it was a good place to wait out the rain.

After our false start, we headed off again around 11:30, hopeful that that was the end of the heavy showers for today but still in our full wet weather gear just in case. While filling Lock 64, I slipped up to see if Diane and Ray from nb Ferndale were about after having no luck catching them yesterday. Still no answer, so I left a short message and went back to finish off the lock. Just after we moved out of the lock Ray was walking across the paddock waving his arms. We stopped the boat and proceeded to chat on the side of the canal for the next 20 minutes or so. Marvelous how many topics you can cover in such a short time! It's a shame we missed Diane but turns out she is away for a little while. I am sure we will cross paths again next year. We missed out on a photo, maybe next time, although Ray managed to snap a shot of us.

I didn't take many photos at all today, not too much happening. I did take this one of a couple we caught up with at the next lock. Seems to be plenty of water in the Grand Union Canal with Lock 64 overflowing!

Andy and Julie waited for us at the next lock and we proceeded to do the rest of the locks for the day with them. We moored up for the day around 3pm just near The Old Mill Inn at Berkhamsted, Rachael had had enough, she was feeling the effects of her developing cold. The only problem with what looked like a nice mooring for the night was the number of trains. I'm not timing them but it must be two Virgin Trains (going opposite directions and on different lines) every 5 - 10 minutes. It's not the noise, it's just not doing the TV signal much good!