The visit

We had a very good weekend at Cowroast and had a lovely Barbecue on Sunday night with Keith and Lorraine of nb Kimberley Jo .
Monday morning and it was across Tring Summit and to the top of the Marsworth flight of locks. There was a queue of boats when we arrived at the top lock. Two boats had got stuck coming out of the second lock down. They had both gone into the lock with large fenders out and got wedged solid. Then one of the crew decided to go down the lock ladder to try and push them out. Matters got worse when he fell in the lock and had to be fished out. The lock keeper thought it was really funny, but it could have been a lot more serious.  After an hour or so the situation was sorted out and we got on our way.
We then spent a couple of days just along from Pitstone wharf where we spent the time polishing and sorting out all those boaty things on Inca.

A leaky lock at seabrook , due to a road cone stuck in the bottom of the gate.

 

  

On Wednesday it was an early start as we had 10 locks to do on the way to The Globe inn at Linslade as on Thursday we had number 1 daughter Chloe and number 1 granddaughter Abbie (Curly) coming to visit us.

As we approached Leighton Buzzard we met our good friends Stuart and Fran with their dog Zeb of nb The Boat. The decision was then made to spend the night here then move on in the morning. We had a good evening aboard Inca and had a good old chin wag, Oh! and a good old drink or two.
Thursday morning and Carolyn and Fran went off for some retail therapy while myself and Stuart stayed with the boats . When the girls returned we said our goodbyes (Hope to meet up with you again soon) and moved on to Linslade .

 

Passing the Wyvern hire boat base. We counted 14 out of their fleet of 35 boats on their moorings. We would have expected them all to be out at this time of the year. Checked their website and there are boats available including this one, a 4 berth available for the 2nd of August for 1 week at £1120. Maybe we should start renting out Inca at those prices.

                              After a 4 and a half hour journey from Devon Chloe and Curly arrived.

After even more shopping on Friday morning we eventually left Linslade and it wasn't long before Chloe jumped on the tiller. It was her first time travelling and steering a narrowboat and as the hire boat people say to all their customers after 5 minutes tuition you are so good at this you must have been born to captain a boat.

                        Chloe doing her first lock at Soulbury 3 locks under expert supervision.

We managed to get the same mooring we had last time at Stoke Hammond and wasted no time in chilling out next to the towpath.
And it wasn't long before we heard two speeding boats approaching us. It was two Wyvern hire boats racing and overtaking each other. As they got level with us they ran out of room and the one nearest to us hit the Bow of Inca. They were just having a bit of fun but i was quick to tell them (shout at the idiots) this not just our boat but it is our home. Luckily they only took a bit of paint off and no real damage was done.

We had planned to have a Barbie but as the wind had picked up we decided to cook aboard Inca. Curly was still so full of energy she didn't go to sleep until after 11 o clock.  Just wait till we get her working the locks. Then she will be begging us to go to bed early.

                                                 Happy days