The Egg

I went for a walk at dusk yesterday.  It was very quiet.

However when I reached the lock at the “lower” end of the pound we were moored in I discovered the last boat that had come up through the lock had left the top gates open and the bottom gates were leaking quite badly.  I then spent a couple of minutes closing the gates knowing that if I didn’t we’d wake in the morning (or during the night) to discover the water had drained from the pound and Waiouru would be listing badly on the bottom.

We awoke to blue skies and warm weather.  Jan walked off to set the lock whilst I prepared the boat for cruising.

Leaving the mooring

My thoughts about the open lock gates proved to be correct.  Whilst the water level in the pound we moored in was fine, the water in next pound was down a metre.  We very gingerly exited the lock and slowly crept across the pound brushing the bottom.  This was the only pound with low water.

Our last lock for the day was Cosgrove and it was below the lock that we passed a CRT tug towing two barges filled with debris removed from the canal.

There was a 45 minute stop at Wolverton which enabled us to restock the galley from the nearby Tesco.

Tesco on the left and the mooring top right  

Neither of us wanted to moor in a residential area so we continued on to the open wetlands area near the Great Ouse.

Left arrow is Tesco and right arrow our mooring

As we approached the mooring location Jan got all excited telling me “There’s the ‘Floating Egg’

On first glance I thought it was a balloon! (I was concentrating on the steering)

More information about the Exbury-Egg here and here.   It’s obviously too big to fit through many of the canal bridge holes.