Hurray! It’s Friday and time for us to resume our trip from Stone to Braunston. We boarded Caxton at half past two, completed our pre-departure checks and chores before leaving Trinity marina. Sue waited on the bank for me after she had returned the key fob to the shop. As I neared the exit, Sue informed me that there was a model boat stranded directly opposite the marina, that explained the concerned look on the face of the bloke standing next to her. I avoided smashing the model to smithereens but later discovered that the owner was hoping that Sue would somehow rescue it for him! Anyway, he had to walk over the bridge and retrieve it himself in the end. I picked Sue up outside the Brewers Fayre and then we exchanged pleasantries with Jim again who was moored nearby before passing under the Coventry Road bridge.
We passed nb Sunny Brid between Nutts Lane and the Limekilns so Sue was able to re-aquaint herself with the theatre assistant from Glenfield hospital.
We pootled our way down the Ashby to Marston junction in what we would describe as perfect boating weather; warm with cloud cover and only light winds.
At the junction we swung left towards Hawkesbury, when we used to do this with Phoenix III we could make it in a single sweep but it is a different matter with Caxton. We got around without trouble and carried on down through the Charity Dock and then passed what was once the Navigation pub and is now a beautiful house, well done to the new owners.
We hadn’t expected to get a mooring anywhere near Hawkesbury on a Friday evening and we were right so we carried on through the junction and stop lock. The turn was a potential source of entertainment for the many patrons of the Greyhound pub but they soon lost interest when it became obvious that we knew what we were doing.
We passed through the lock and then slipped between the boats moored on both sides of the cut. We noticed that the Elephant & Castle pub has gone the way of the Navigation and is also a private house now. A few minutes later and we reached our mooring for the evening, close to the M6 motorway but from past experience, a peaceful one.