October cruise Day 6 - Back to Tattenhall and a Blogger's Meeting

We left Barbridge junction about 9.30am and enjoyed the clear blue sky and sunshine. Considering it is now the beginning of November we consider ourselves blessed that the weather has been good to us so far.

Leaving Barbridge in what could be mistaken for a summers morning.

At Bunbury Locks we were joined by a lovely couple enjoying their cruise in their shared boat nb Avington.  We unfortunately forgot to ask their names but thank you both if you are reading this.  They seemed happy we would be going down the locks together.  In double locks having two boats together is much less stressful and makes easier work for the lock wheelers.  Just as we started our descent of the top lock another boater appeared downstream so with three boats in the locks we had to perform the famous Bunbury shuffle.  This greatly pleased the lady of Avington as although she had heard of this she neither knew what it entailed nor had they both experienced it.  After clearing the locks they both admitted they found doing the shuffle interesting.

We then cruised together through Tilstone lock and Beeston stone lock, however, at Beeston Iron lock we both agreed to go down separately and so with a cheery wave we said our goodbyes.

nb Avington waiting while Stone lock is turned in our favour

Turnotheworld, is it steam powered, but lovely none the less?

The distinctive Wild Boar hotel in the distance

 We have received a comment from Bloggers Richard and Sharon from nb Oakapple that they were moored by Wharton Lock for the weekend and sure enough just above the lock we came across Oakapple

We pulled in below the lock and were greeted by Richard and Sharon who invited us aboard for a cuppa.  We closed up AmyJo and with cake in hand as an offering we walked back up to Oackapple and enjoyed Richard and Sharon's hospitality for a couple or hours.  Meantime the weather had deteriorated and it started to rain.  Not wanting to be too late back we said our goodbyes with a promise to meet up again later in the week.  Thank you Richard and Sharon it was a great pleasure to finally meet you both and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

On the last leg before pulling into the marina the sun broke out again but we spotted these rather interesting cloud formations

Cloud halo around the sun gave this stunning ring of rays

These clouds look like a rolling wave of water

So that's our last long cruise for this year but we are still hoping to cruise for a few weekends over the winter.  We still plan to stay aboard AmyJo as she has now become our home.  We love being aboard and have new found friends in the marina.  We still miss Crick but whilst Tattenhall has accepted us, the other boaters still call us the folks on the posh boat!  We may 'ave a posh boat but we definitely ain't posh :-)

Total distance:8.16 miles Elapsed time:6h58m43s Locks:6 Bridges:15 

Average speed:1.17 mph (2.03 lock/mph)