Sunday, 27th December

Decision time. We are allowed to move our boat to keep our essential services, such as water, waste disposal and heat supplied. Did we want to go further into London or retreat back in the direction we have come? In the end we decided to beat a retreat so our first task today was to turn the boat around and for that we had two options. Either travel an hour to Bull’s Bridge Junction where we could turn the boat and travel an hour back to where we started and then continue on. Or, reverse the boat approximately 100 yds into the Slough Arm where we could then turn around. Of course that sounds the quickest, simplest solution. Except that I think even that probably took the best part of an hour with a few extreme stress points! Suffice to say the start of the day was not the most harmonious! However once we were facing in the right direction, with the sun on our back and a clear blue sky, tensions dissolved and we had a beautiful journey along the canal navigating a few locks, which seem to be easier when you are going in the upward direction. We even stopped at a lock Cafe previously visited to make sure the gluhwein wine was still as good! The only other touch point of the day came when we thought we were tucked in for the night. Darkness had fallen and the wide towpath we were moored along was suddenly illuminated by a pair of headlights! It transpired the towpath was also a narrow lane and a takeaway food delivery was trying to get past our mooring pins! Sensing that this might not be the only vehicle wanting access we decided to move the boat. However our options were limited. Behind us was a weir so the current of water was not in our favour. The next suitable mooring was a couple of hundred yards further down the canal, which I had to navigate in almost total darkness, whilst R shone a torch along the towpath as additional guidance to the boat’s one headlamp. All a bit unsettling at the time but eventually R hammered in the second set of mooring pins muttering that at least it wasn’t raining! The physical effort required at times is exhausting and slightly hazardous as you don’t want to be hitting your thumb instead of the pin! A well earned Guinness for his efforts put R into a better humour and at least retiring to bed tonight we have not got the storm raging that rocked us to sleep last night.