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Although we were all but ready to pack the car for departure last evening, it still took us until 12:30+ before we got away. Late in the morning we were asked to move our boat onto the pontoon we had by then been allocated. Took a little longer than usual to tie up firmly as the rings on the pontoon were not well placed for our length! (At this marina the pontoons are double length and we are on the outer end) We had hopes that we would have left before the marina had worked out where we were to go - they promised us on Friday that if that happened then a harbourmaster would move the boat for us, but we were too slow in getting away!

We had to fool Android Auto to give us a route that avoided Stow. From past experience, that road is especially frustrating at this time of year and even on standard timings only offers about two minutes advantage.

Instead, we routed to Oxford but called at a Warwick Services for some sandwiches - we had failed to keep back enough ingredients to make them ourselves before leaving. The service station was very busy and Christine found it a bit frustrating with empty spaces in many of the slots for the sandwiches she wanted!

Whilst Christine was foraging, Mike reset the satnav to take us the familiar route on the A34 towards Newbury and then along the A4 via Hungerford and Marlborough. We were home just after half past three.

Our planning now is open ended - we can be reasonably sure that any section of the network that is closed for water shortage will not re-open this month with the prospect of much longer. It may be a slight exaggeration, by CaRT have said that at least three weeks of continuous rain will be needed to replenish the canals and the reservoirs to a point at which re-opening will be considered.

Of course, there are still many miles still available but we will probably err on the precautionary side to avoid being trapped away from Cropredy when it becomes available for us to return for the winter. We have booked for at least three weeks at Brinklow and other diary entries will be made on that basis.