Shallow, just a little

We left the Wendover basin early in the hope it was full of water having been topped up over night.. Well early ended up being at 8.30am and we crept out pulling up mud behind us.. Its a mile and a half to the junction and it was going to be a long journey..

Once or twice we grounded, and had to sit a wait for the levels to come back up..It was like driving a tractor with the mud we were churning up ...

We had problems at the mill again as Derwent6 wanted to go straight on and into these stairs but Al managed to push us off..

We never got out of Idle and then met another boat; we both grounded and somehow managed to pass each other..  He never got to the basin.. after an hour we pulled out into the junction and met a couple going down the locks at Marsworth.

"Its shallow at Cow Roast" he shouted, "you want to go down the Arm" we shouted back. He was right it was shallow all round and we just managed to pull in for water at Bulbourne.

We then moved on to Cow Roast where it got worse and we looked for a spot to moor up.....No Chance! It was just too shallow, so we had an idea that we could get a pumpout at Cow Roast marina. We got in OK but then had to wait about twenty minutes while the boat already on the pontoon got diesel and gas..

When we got on the pumpout it wouldn't work due to a blockage in our pipes. We had to get another coin to try it on the other side and it freed it off and we managed to drain the tank.. so a bit lighter we came out the marina and tried again to moor up and after two attempts we got in.. Not ideal, but we were happy.. 

With a dry boat we then walked down the pub for a well earned drink in the garden but were accompanied by two screaming kids so in the end we walked back to Derwent6. We did manage to get rid of our rubbish though... We chilled in the afternoon and evening and the best bit was taking a long cold shower, after a sticky day...