A phone call to Uxbridge Boat Centre to find out whether our part had arrived elicited the response “well that explains that little mystery then”. The wholesalers had managed to post the cap off from the wilds of Norfolk and Good, but had failed in their promise to let Uxbridge Boat Centre know what was going on.

A strange bridge caught our eye passing through West Drayton.

The Boat Centre were very helpful: an old style boat yard still occupying premises once used by Fellows Morton and Clayton, the historic carrying company. The chandlery was an Aladdin’s cave, and their diesel cheap. Who could ask for more.

Somewhat confused to find Denham Marina right below Uxbridge Lock rather than Denham Lock, we wondered if the sweltering weather was getting to us. Just up the water from Uxbridge, on the rural-ish outskirts of Denham, an old and elderly family friend of SWMBO lives in a house with a garden that runs down to the canal. As it happened, she was at home and we were able to park in the willow tree at the end of her garden long enough for a very welcome afternoon cup of tea, before carrying on and eventually mooring somewhere in a water park not a million miles from Harefield Hospital.