Just the final short hop back to the marina today. The weather had turned much more 'average' for the time of year, with overcast skies and a chill in the air. Actually, later it turned better with a smidgen of sunshine in the afternoon, once the morning showers had passed over. Fortunately they held off until we were moored up again.
When we moored yesterday we were the only boat, plus one already there, on a fairly long stretch of good mooring. As can be seen, when we left this morning there was quite a line of boats.
The small group of canoeists (probably from the centre in Cropredy) passed us just before we left and without warning turned to come back towards us and then seemed to play 'chicken', heading straight for us until the last moment when we could not see where they were!
Later, one of the group paddled up close and was very cross with us because we were taking photos of them, "Very suspicious", he exclaimed ominously. He seemed unconvinced that we were photographing the canal features (bridges at this point), not in slightest interested in them and, in fact, rather wished they were not in the frame!
Then a long line of long term moorings which meant that the canoes could not pass us and so had to stay behind at a snail's pace! Much more interesting was to see our namesake boat.
And so to the last lock of the trip: Cropredy. A hire boat ahead was taking some time in the lock. Turned out that the lady who was working the paddles and gates was not confident to cross over the top gate footboard and so only opened the nearside paddle. As the bottom gates are quite leaky, they reached a steady stage a few inches below full with as much going out as was coming in. Once we opened the other paddle the lock was soon ready.
A new challenge just at the last minute - there was no-one around to open the swing bridge into Swan basin and so, for the first time, we had to do it ourselves. Not difficult to open and come through but closing it had to wait until we were moored, but by then another moorer had turned up and wanted to come across so closed it for us.
The wind had now picked up a bit more but we have now a routine for getting into the mooring slot - made a lot easier by having a vacant pontoon next to us! Wider target to aim for.
After lunch we drove into Banbury, mainly to visit M&S on one of the out-of-town retail parks, so that Christine could use up some money-back coupons buying new pyjamas for Mike - as with most of the clothes he has on the boat they are hand-me-downs from home use and so these particular items had been declared as having reached the final end of their usable life! Christine was looking for a baseball style hat (but with a bit more style!) that has a wide brim to help keep the sun out of her eyes when steering (hoping that she will soon be sufficiently mended to resume those duties. It took three stores before she found a suitable size and design. We also drove to Morrisons - to get some items for a change of menu tonight. If we had company, we might have to call it party time!
1.7 Miles - 1 Lock
No comments:
Post a Comment