Christmas Cruise - Day 7 (Christmas Day)

We were in a great mooring last night, very peaceful. The morning was brighter and colder than so far this trip. As it was Christmas Day, we treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast, and got under way at ten past nine. We were straight into the Claydon Locks, which is a favourite flight of ours. Somehow, it was looking particularly good in its bare winter state. There were quite a few dog walkers about, all looking cheerful and wishing us a Merry Christmas. The top two locks were in our favour, but the next three were empty. We wondered whether someone had been mooried in the long pound above the middle lock, and had set off before us,

We left the bottom lock at 10 o'clock, and went to the winding place just before the next bridge. It's not marked in the Pearson's guide, but is shown in the Nicholson (and we knew about it because we moored at the bottom of the Claydon locks on our trip last Christmas). Adrian made a great job of turning the boat. From the towpath, Debdale looked really long!

At 10.15, we were going back into the bottom lock, and by 11am, we were passing our mooring place. So we'd taken almost two hours to get absolutely nowhere. Which is ideal, really.

We carried on through Fenny Compton, heading for our traditional (see previous post) Christmas Day mooring spot, between bridges 130 and 129. There were no boats here yesterday, but there were already three moored up when we arrived at 1.30, and several (including hire boats from Kate and Rose) have been past since.

The famous Braunston turkey is in the oven, the roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips have just gone in, the brussells are ready and the pink bubbly is in the fridge. Even the Christmas pudding is already steaming. We are trying hard not to forget to cook the little sausages wrapped in bacon that will have to go under the grill as there's no room in the oven, and we also need to remember to get the home made cranberry sauce out. If it all works out OK, we may have to add a photo later!

We hope everyone is having as great a Christmas as we are! Merry Christmas!

8 miles, 10 locks (66 miles, 28 locks)