Claydon

Today's Canal : Oxford

On Tuesday we went shopping in Banbury (M&S and Morrisons), stovking up for the next few days when shops will be scarce.

Yesterday we drove down to Hungerford for the funeral celebration for Ann Powell (wife of Steve, both fellow waterways chaplains on that stretch of the K&A) She died recently from a major stroke. She had just had a heart bypass an all had seemed well, so it was a shock to all who knew her. They were liveaboards for the past five years and were generally in the Bedwyn and `Hungerford areas. Ann was always ready for a chat with other boaters, as well as towpath walkers, keeping Steve company on the various occasion on which he helps other boaters with engine problems. Sadly, his own medical problems have made getting into an engine hole too big a challenge in recent months. I am sure that she will be sadly missed and the church (alongside the swing bridge in Hungerford) was packed for the occasion.

The car needed charging after the journey and we called at the Opsrey/Tesla site on the retail park alongside Tesco. The Osprey units have a bit of a reputation for being a bit awkward but the one we selected seemed to accept our card at the first attempt and that charging had started (so it said!) Sadly, after about 30 minutes wandering around the shops looking for a few items, Mike spotted that the display still said that it had not put in any charge! With some difficulty he managed to get the machine to reset and so he had to start over. Eventually it made it up to 86%, enough for now.

Today we started on preparing to leave in good time. The usual round of emptying the elsan, disposing of rubbish (no food waste bins yet but they are now scheduled) and filling with water. We were underway before 10.

No sooner than Mike stated to reverse it of the mooring than there was a rather alarming rattle from the prop so he brought the boat to a halt in the narrows at the swing bridge. Fortunately it was not as first feared (a metallic item wrapped around the prop) but as then suspected, the uxter plate had worked loose. Unlike most boats, this does not keep water out of the bilges and can sometimes work itself untightened. A few minutes work and we continued.

Today was generally grey and not the best for pictures. Also this is familiar territory so not so easy to spot something new!

Just after we came up through Little Bourton on Monday, a paddle (or several) was left up overnight and a pound was drained. Whilst the Stoppage Notice was unusually coy about the cause, reports from boaters who were delayed suggests that this was not accidental. A queue of at least 21 boats built up and it took most of yesterday for them all to get underway again. As a result, today was much busier with traffic going up than down.

Although we had slight delays at each of the locks, the flow was quite smooth and most people were happy to help each other through. Broadmoor Lock is well known to us as the place where, in 2008, we first saw - and bought - nb Take Five which happily saw us through to 2016 when we placed an order for a new build, nb Alchemy.

For some reason, Elkington's Lock has not had the blue sign makeover, not even making it out of the British Waterways era!

And so the the five locks of the Claydon Flight. A couple of volunteer lock keepers on the upper half also helped. They were both reasonably experienced and knew how to judge the right amount of help to offer - it varies according to boater preference.

Christine's arm continues to improve and she is now able to steer longer distances, here from one lock to the next. This makes a considerable difference to our rate of progress.

At the middle lock the lock keepers have their little hut with a noticeboard showing how many boats have passed through today. This featured in the first episode of Robbie Cummings' latest series of diary programmes, this time on U&Yesterday. At this stage it showed 17 up and 3 down.

It is no longer allowed to stop in the longer pound before the top of the flight (despite there being good mooring rings) so we had to continue, arriving out at the top not long after 1 o'clock, keen to find a stop for lunch. There was just one space at the start of the first known mooring which we gladly accepted. We had not planned to go much further so, after a long lunch break, we stretched it to an overnight stop!

2.8 Miles - 8 Locks