6th - 28th Sept

Another long gap - result of poor signal, and being away.  We spent a couple of days earlier in the month visiting Stoke Bruerne, to look at the excellent canal museum,

Stoke Bruerne

and then returned to Gayton Junction, where we enjoyed seeing Denise and Rick (but forgot to take a picture!)  We also had a VIP overnight guest, namely Sam, aged 4 years, doing his first solo sleepover without big brother Joseph, who was away at a Beavers camp.

Sam with his suitcase full of toys

The middle part of the month was taken up by a trip to France to visit Alex, Guillaume and Louis in Vannes -

Alex and Louis

Guillaume's foolproof  barbecue-lighting technique

this involved two different types of boating for us, on the car ferry, and also an outing on A&G's boat, to picnic on an island in the Golfe de Morbihan.

Roger surrounded by more water than normal

On our return we headed immediately to Leeds to celebrate Robert's 30th birthday, and to see David, Lizzie and James.

Birthday boy Rob with Mum

Now we're back on Vincent Joseph, and - WOO-HOO - we're on the River Nene!  The 17 locks down into Northampton centre were peacefully rural, and we left the canal system with some trepidation to emerge on to the river, which thankfully is flowing very gently at this point. We plan to spend a couple of weeks cruising to Peterborough and possibly beyond - more updates as and when signal allows.