Off to the marina in glorious sunshine. Brief(ish) stop at Southam Tesco for what was supposed to be "lunch" but ended up as a trolleyful (mostly bottled water though).
All ready to go at 12, when lo there appeared dark clouds above and it started to rain. So we had a coffee and read the paper and by 12.30 it was just damp, so we made a break for it. Up the 3 Calcutt locks entirely on our own - and the fastest we've ever done them - 20 minutes.
Left at Wigram's Turn and we find black skies ahead and blue behind - have we gone the right way? However it's not long before the good weather catches up with us and we reach Braunston. A boat is already heading into the bottom lock so we have company up all six locks and five of them are in our favour. Everything going swimmingly.
We have found our horn is not working so our companions follow us through Braunston Tunnel ready to give us a push in case of emergency. They, and everyone else we've met today, have been really friendly.
We reached our planned mooring spot at Welton Wharf expecting it to be busy and possibly even full, but no - it's just us and another boat 100 yds down. Is everyone watching the Olympics? or just put off by the weather forecast? Our neighbour tells us we may well see kingfishers, and an otter if we're lucky.
It's a lovely evening. Perfect for a barbecue - if only we had something to barbecue.
8 3/4 miles, 9 locks, 1 tunnel
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