Last day's cruising - for now

 Friday, and the sun is shining, the wind's dropped and all is well with the world. 

A couple of hire boats went past us into the bottom lock and we thought, just our luck! Us, on our own for all seven of the Stroke Bruerne locks. But, luckily, along came a boat called Somang, which is Korean for Hope.

A couple, much like ourselves, but continuous cruisers and, much to the captain's delight, waterway chaplains to boot. 

We got the bottom lock ready and waited in there while they emptied the loo, took on water and disposed of rubbish. All this took place while the hire boats were clearing through the next lock up. Then there was a boat coming down, so we didn't really lose any time at all and it meant that we had a lock buddy. 

Now, I'm usually quite quiet going through locks, but this time we managed to talk nonstop from bottom to top of the flight. We got on so well that we all went for lunch in The Navigation. 

After lunch we set off through the tunnel and back to Bugbrook. 

Clear skies, for a change

Moored for lunch

Arrived at the marina just as the sky threatened to leak all over us. 

So, that's it for now. Tomorrow we close the boat up for a couple of weeks, hoping that we can come back for a few more days cruising.