Warm Cruising Days on the Grand Union Canal

We continue our journey south on the Grand Union Canal. The sun has finally made a sustained appearance and we're making the most of it. Serafina has been getting some attention after the long English winter as we deal with the perennial rust spots as they appear as well as adding updates where we can.

Time for a break at Stoke Breune, the tow path has changed sides so time to paint the starboard gunwale. This gunwale needed some extra attention, the non-slip surface needed renewing. This meant laying two strips of tape the length of the gunwale, painting between them and sprinkling kiln-dried sand on the wet paint. 

Painting between the lines

Sprinkling the fine kiln-dried sand

Once the paint was dry, several more coats of black semi-gloss paint were applied over several days and walla! no more grey speckles and a nice new non slip surface.

A few days break and another task checked-off Rachael's 'Kelvin's To-Do List' we set off again heading for Cosgrove, another small village but with a lovely pub on the other side of the canal. Access to the pub was not via bridge as usual but via the horse tunnel used in horse drawn days for access to the blacksmith and stables behind The Barley Mow where we stopped for a pint or two in this 200+ year old pub.

The Barley Mow (from their website)

Only an overnight stop and a water tank fill and rubbish stop for both boats on a chilly summer morning before heading off.

Heading for Wolverton there was only the Cosgrove Lock to complete and a crossing of the Iron Trunk Aquaduct built in 1811 consisting of two cast iron troughs spanning 31m (total), 4.6m wide amd nearly 2m deep with a single brick pier in the centre crossing the River Great Ouse 18m below. An engineering marvel in it's day.

Wolverton is a stark change to what we have been used to with the moorings in the middle of high rise flats.

This was only a shopping stop with large Tesco and Lidl supermarkets only a short walk from the moorings then it was onward passing the large mural just outside Wolverton celebrating the railways to finish the day in Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes is a fully planned city and the cruising was different here again. As we got closer to Milton Keynes we seemed to be in the centre of acres of parklands. The moorings too were in the middle of a park, the canal lined with poplars and large pieces of art scattered around. The next day we headed into town, the shopping centre was a good twenty minute walk from our mooring, through the parkland trails and ending in this large artwork.

To finish off this section of the journey we left our Milton Keynes mooring for a rather easy day of just a few hours cruising and one lock to complete. An early arrival in Fenny Stratford meant another opportunity for maintenance, this time to do a repair to the rust affected hinges on the side hatch. Rachael has also prepared the stern deck metal front and sides ready for painting. Fenny Stratford has a train station close-by too, our friends took the chance to shoot home for a few days.