It's been a busy day.

0 Locks, 2 Miles. Now moored at Brownsover Park.

From the time we got up this morning there have been boats on the move, probably the most we have seen for a couple of weeks. Just as we were about to reverse back to the water point one boat came through heading North and while we were on the water point I had heard this distinctive engine sound coming from some distance away. It turned out to be Nb Hadar who we eventually followed all the way back to Brownsover. When we were here on Friday there were no spaces available on the park side but this time there was one just big enough to squeeze our 55 foot into. Adrian on Nb Debdale is now moored on the other side before heading for Braunston tomorrow after Adam arrives tonight from London.

After a quick early lunch it was off to the railway station to pick up Tracey. All the alterations at Rugby station are now nearly complete and the Virgin Pendolino's that are not scheduled to stop here fly through at 125MPH on new track well away from the platforms. Just as well as the slip stream would be horrendous sucking everything off the platform. Once we had Tracey safely in tow it was back to the bus stop. The traffic was bumper to bumper backed up as far as the eye could see but it was about to get worse. An articulated truck (lorry) tried to squeeze his 13 foot cab aerofoil under the 11 foot rail bridge, now I would have thought that the driver would know the dimensions of his vehicle. Luckily he managed to stop in time only inches from the bridge. However cars were now bumper to bumper behind him and he had only 1 option and that was to reverse back to a car park entrance to turn and return from whence he had come. The car drivers just sat there even though they could see the truck was in reverse. After about 5 minutes I couldn't stand it any longer so I got out there and started to direct the traffic, bought back memories of my old traffic police days in NZ. There were a couple of idiot drivers who were only interested in their own personal journeys but I eventually got the artic: truck into the car park with the help of the car park attendant. After letting some of the traffic clear we again held up the traffic to get the truck out of the car park. He had to use the full width of the road but he made it. As he passed me I suggested he get an up to date map book showing bridge limits.

When the bus finally arrived it was full but we managed to get aboard and we found out that due to heavy traffic the buses were all behind schedule so they were just doing the best they could under the circumstances. We saw 3 buses going back into town only about 2 minutes apart so they were well off the timetable.

After a quick cuppa back on the boat Dot and Tracey went off to Tesco's for some last minute Xmas shopping while I took my fuel cans to Tesco's service station for some diesel which is now only 97.9p per litre, most boat yards are £1.05 to £1.15 for propulsion. If I am going to pay top dollar for fuel I might as well get good clean diesel rather than the red stuff, it will dilute what red stuff is already in the tank and perhaps help the engine and central heating unit operate more efficiently. I rang Nb Ghosty Hill, the diesel and coal boat and he will be in Rugby on Xmas eve so we will get some more diesel from him then.

1586 locks, 3317 ½ miles, 53 Tunnels, 43 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006