We awoke to another beautiful sunny day and after some breakfast we untied and left our mooring just after 10 o’clock. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Marston Junction where we met a convoy of boats heading south, the first three were all from the Ashby hire fleet, heaven help the fourth in line. We plodded on up the Ashby but the time just slipped by and soon the warehouses on the A5 came into sight. We pulled up at the Limekilns despite the fact that all the moorings were full and tied on to Jim’s boat Billie. One or two people expressed concern that we had tied up there and another boater offered a mooring alongside his. Jim has a fearsome reputation in these parts but he’s our friend and when he appeared, of course there was no problem. So we sat and had a couple of drinks with him and his friend Rosie. It took a few minutes for the penny to drop when we realised that we were in the presence of the most famous canal pair on television, Rosie and Jim.

We started the last leg of our journey with the final half an hour back to Trinity marina. The trip had been excellent, it all seemed too good to be true and unfortunately that turned out to be the case. Moments after we turned into the marina, an alarm went off indicating that the engine was overheating. We switched off and drifted until we came to rest alongside the posts at the end of the pontoons. We then manouvered using poles and ropes into our new temporary berth on ‘C’ Pontoon.

A subsequent inspection found a split hose which was replaced by the installer, so no harm done!