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Today's Canal : Oxford

Today felt as if a late Spring had arrived. Despite a forecast of very low temperatures overnight, it was already quite warm by the time were about. The sky was bright blue and everyone (well, almost  but we won't talk about the exception!) was feeling very cheerful.

We set off from our overnight mooring just above Sutton Stop by about 9.45. Before long there was close to a consensus that we would aim to be back in the marina - the office is closed tomorrow and we wanted to fill up with diesel on arrival. £1.47 a litre, base price. Chatting when were filling we learnt that Aquavista buy their fuel centrally so all their marinas charge the same price.

The bright sunshine brings out the best of wildflowers - this long line of white blossom was rather impressive.

We met an surprising number of on-coming boats. At first almost all were from either Clifton pr Willow Wren in Rugby but later predominantly private boats. between Ansty and Stretton we passed around 20 - perhaps the busiest stretch we have seen for a very long time. The part of the Oxford also has narrow channel with much depth so that passing is tricky especially if one steerer is nervous of getting too close. We scraped the bottom on numerous occasion despite being almost 2 metres from the towpath. 

A little before passing underneath the M69 at Nettle Hill, a hire boat caught us up. Whilst they remained quite patient, perhaps realising that there were no suitable places to let them by, what with excess vegetation on the off side and shallow waters by the towpath.

We did know that the motorway offered the best option with a full depth and width under the bridge. We waved them on and they passed with ease - they seemed suitably pleased. In fact it as only at Stretton that they were able to gain any great distance on us.

The little footbridge at Stretton Stop was left open for us so we only had to close it after we had passed through.

We paused for lunch a short distance before our destination, surprised to find a great mooring with armco at Old Oaks Corner. This gave Mike a chance to tackle a well-overdue oven clean. Fortunately we do keep a good set of cleaning materials on board, especially those for the oven. All went well until Christine came to inspect an found that front glass plate had slipped out of position. This is a known problem as is the fact that correcting it not at all easy. One of those tasks that looks as it it should be a 10 second job but which defies finding the 'trick'. In the process Mike managed to unhook the dropdown front door out of its hinges - which have very strong springs to help balance the weight of the front glass. After struggling for at least ten  minutes, Mike ceded defeat for moment as we were running near to the office closing time at the marina.

We came into the marina around 3:20 and pulled at first onto the fuel wharf where we took on 97 litres of liquid gold - thanks Mr Trump! This was also a chance to check one of the maintenance jobs that Mike did yesterday. When the boat was repainted, an identification plaque on the transom has been removed and the painters forgot to put it back. Unfortunately this left two small holes through the hull into the fuel tank right at its top. We had found almost as soon as the boat was handed back to us by the painters that when filling the tank to the brim there was a slight escape of fuel, readily visible on the water surface. We called at the next boatyard but they could find nothing amiss. The problem only manifested when we filled right up - if we left just a small headroom it was OK. We remained puzzled until last autumn when we were accepting that we had to remain in Brinklow Marina for the winter and came up to winterize. Whilst there are two views on this, we usually opt to leave the tank full for the winter period. As we were just completing the fill, Mike spotted a small spillage and knew that it was not his lack of care and, in any case, it was on the opposite site from the filler hole. he could also see a tiny flow when he tilted the boat in that direction. A later investigation revealed why we had these two tiny holes and how to fix the problem has been on Mike's mind ever since. Sourcing a new number plate was the easy part and we were only ready to try to fix it on this trip. Mike planned to use pop rivets - we did not know what was used before - but found that our store only had ones that were two large in width. We tried several places in Coventry city centre to no avail but did pick up some external No Nails lookalike = exterior sealant had also proved elusive. In the event a couple of screws did the job yesterday so today was the acid test. When we filled up, nothing seemed to spill. Hooray - all we now need to see is if it is permanent!

There was no wind at all today but just as we arrived at the marina a feisty breeze made mooring just that bit trickier!

Oh, and whilst Christine was sorting out a problem with the electricity card and the bollard (Sonia from the office kindly came to check it out for her) Mike re-visited the oven door. After several fruitless approaches he finally worked out a way of getting the hinges and their catches to engage properly - so our planned jacket potatoes for dinner tonight are safe!

9.2 Miles - 0 Locks