Finally made it off the marina!...

Slightly later than planned but what a beautiful day to get going. Slightly chilly in the master cabin early on (hovering around 8deg C) but very calm and an icy blue sky.

The first lock of Buckby flight is only about 100m from the marina so we were straight into it. The flight rises about 63ft over a mile or so, luckily we managed to pair up with another boat so there was three lock operatives which made the going good. 

As we have to be in Oxford early to pick up our daughter, Jess, meet mum and dad in Whitney and get to London by 11.30ish to meet up with the rest of the family for Nan's funeral; we have decided to moor as soon as we could north of the flight where we had left the bongo so we can get going well before the local commuter traffic.

With no evening boating traffic and only a couple of dog walkers it has been a very peaceful end to our first day. With the stove lit and burning a slow mix of coal and a couple of logs from the pile I soon had a bubbling pot of chicken and butter bean casserole going.

Everyone we have met today has been polite and chatty which echos all of our previous experiences on the cut. There are a few repetitive questions that I had expected to answer from walkers over the coming weeks but the first one came literally minutes after we had moored up - 'do you live on board all year round?' I wonder how long it will  be before the next one.

Now where are the rest of those shortbread biccies?