Car Shuffle Day

Both Mike and Andrew needed to collect cars from the start of the trip. Andrew's was at Apsley whilst the other was next to the boatyard in Watford. After considerable discussion it was decided that they would both travel by train down to Apsley, Andrew would then drive them both to Watford after which they would separately drive to Droitwich Marina and finally Andrew take Mike to park his (Andrew's) car for a couple of hours close to where the boat was moored in the centre of Birmingham. After an evening meal he would then drive home. What could go wrong?

They left the boat in good time to walk vua the ICC to New Street Station. Arriving in good time they were able to buy coffees before boarding the first train. This was the medium fast train to London Euston via Northampton. They alighted at Milton Keynes to change to a slow stopping train to Apsley. This all worked well and they arrived on time.

It was only a short drive to Watford where the other car was still safely parked in an unmarked space next to a recreation ground. It was all going so well!

Just as he was setting his SatNav for the next leg of the journey, Andrew spotted that there was a lengthy delay on the M40 so they decided to take an alternative via Aylesbury and join the motorway further on.

Andrew managed to persuade his satnav to take him to Junction 10, just where the problem (road down to one lane for crash barrier repairs) - Mike thought he was headed towards Banbury after a food and comfort stop at Aylesbury Tesco, but after a while found himself heading resolutely to Bicester and Junction 9. The intersection was a nightmare - it was almost gridlocked as southbound traffic was largely all leaving because there were other delays after that, and the traffic lights were quite unable to cope, changing frequently to no purpose! Finally, Mike made it onto the M40 which was moving at a snail's pace - at least it was moving but it was perhaps it was perhaps 90 minutes later than expected when he finally left the motorways (M40, M42, M5) just outside Droitwich. 

Mike's delay was communicated to Andrew who was able to make use of the time to top up his new electric car, which he would anyway have needed to do before he could safely drive back from Birmingham. 

They met up at the marina where Mike left our car ready for when we get there in a few days time. Although it was now dark and rain started to fall, eventually rather heavily, they had little problem navigating to the chosen car park and the short walk to the boat where Christine was already preparing the meal!