Saturday, September 30, 2017

Five on a boat to Oxford - part 4

On our way out of Cropredy the next morning, we had a long stay at the services point. The water flow was extremely slow, and our tank was nigh-on empty. While I was standing around trying to be patient, along came a man in a small boat with a buzzing outboard motor. He moored nearby, took a large Porta Potti to the Elsan unit, and rubbish and recycling to their respective disposal points. Then he unrolled a hose and prepared to fill a very large water container on his little boat. We got chatting.

He lives on a pair of narrowboats with his wife and children a mile or so down from the village. His little boat is his regular shuttle to the services and the shop. He's been living on the canals for 33 years, but at Cropredy for only seven of those. His wife works locally, and is a local councillor. His children go to a local school, and he drives them there and back. His own trade is carpentry, particularly on boats.

I mention all of this detail because he was the first person I'd ever spoken with whose boat-home is permanently moored, and the family live in the boats just the same way as others live in a house. Their boats don't go anywhere. They don't cruise. All other liveaboards I've met have been continuous cruisers, usually single, and never a family. Now, I know this isn't at all uncommon, but it was a first for me, and I found it quite fascinating, for whatever reason. These aren't the office-workers living on the river in London, York, Oxford and so many other cities. These are country-village folk. And they love it!

On our way finally, we left Cropredy and headed off to Banbury. 4 miles and 3 locks later (2 hours) we arrived in Banbury, where we found a number of mooring spaces to choose from, and chose to tie up next to the Castle Quay shopping centre.




Our visitors hadn't visited the town before, so they went sight-seeing while Grace and I dealt with the more mundane food shopping. Banbury's a nice town, with a nice "feel" to it (but don't ask exactly what I mean by that!)



Christine and Mike treated us all to a meal that evening, though it was really difficult to find a decent place to go to. Looking around on Google Maps, we found "The Cherwell" though our navigators got us well lost, and at one point we ended up at a pub that was closed for refurbishment. It bore no name, but a local assured us it was "The Marlborough", and we continued our search.

"The Cherwell" was good, though at 8:00 pm, they removed the menus from the tables so that diners would make room for the serious drinkers. No dessert for us, then!

Grace and I nipped out to the nearby market on Saturday morning, returning to the boat with heavy bags full of fruit and veg, then we made our way out of the basin (via the services - it was amazing how much difference the extra three crew were making to water consumption and waste creation!) and out into the lovely countryside again.




Through the first of the numerous lift-bridges that span the water down to Oxford; the early ones are either permanently up, or totally missing), and then we meet a hire-boat at a bend with a bridge - where else would it happen? The novice skipper didn't handle it too well, but we didn't collide, and he called out cheerily to us as we passed "That was my first bridge encounter!"

His second bridge encounter was his collision with it about 30 seconds later!



The canal remained bendy and shallow, and one boat coming around a right-hand bend in front of us totally lost control because of bank effect, and crashed hard into our portside bow, actually denting the rubbing strake. It wasn't his fault, but he didn't have a clue what had happened, and looked most alarmed!

At the lozenge-shaped Aynho Weir Lock, the canal starts to feel rather more rivery, but the best is yet to come!




We moored overnight at a beautiful, remote, peaceful spot south of Chiswell Lift Bridge no. 193.


Thursday, September 28, 2017

Five on a boat to Oxford - part 3

Wednesday gave us a beautiful, post-storm morning. We'd not even been slightly disturbed by passing Aileen, though there were nearby fallen branches, and a lot of ripped-off leaves.



We left under blue, sunny skies. The canal gets very winding at this point, and the water was rather shallow, so we didn't travel fast. Nervous novices navigated the hairpins with extreme caution. We felt sorry for them as they came around the blind bends and found themselves almost nose to nose with us. But there were no collisions, and they passed with triumphant looks on their faces.

Topless Fenny Compton Tunnel was another point of possible problems, but there was just one boat approaching up the narrow channel, and we continued unhindered after they'd passed. We didn't ask why they had their tunnel light on!

The one real problem with boating on the Oxford Canal is the shortage of decent moorings. Most of the towing-path side bank is reinforced with either rocks or cement bags, both of which make pinning impossible, and would be injurious to hull paintwork if that were not the case. Having found a short stretch of armco for our lunch-stop, when it came to us needing an overnight mooring, we travelled on and on, looking for a similar spot. Eventually, we arrived at Claydon Top Lock, and there was just one space available, though that was too short for us until the owners of the boat behind saw our problem and came out to move their craft forwards a few yards. We moored with a sigh of relief, and chatted with the couple for some time before going down for a much-needed cuppa.

I took no photos that day. I'm waiting for the delivery of an SD card-full of pictures taken by the rest of the crew, and I'll add some later.

On Thursday morning, we were the last to leave the moorings. As we approached Claydon Top Lock, it was clear that there was something of a hold-up. The boat two in front of us was skippered by a lone woman who was using a walking stick. Mobility was patently a problem for her. She had taken her boat into the lock, lowered it, and was trying to bow-haul it out. I hurried to help her, and between us we succeeded. Once she was back on board, the obvious thing to do was for me to take her down the flight, manning all of the locks for her while Christine and Dorothy did the same for Kantara; Mike was at the helm, with Grace supervising.

This worked very well, and the descent was pretty quick. The limping lady was met at the bottom by a friend who would go with her for the rest of her journey to Banbury.







We stopped at Cropredy for our visitors to do a bit of sight-seeing, and for lunch, shopping and an overnight stay. The rain, which had conveniently held off so far, came with a vengeance while Christine and Mike were on their way back from the little shop, and they got drenched to the skin. Mike said something about feeling like a bit of a drip!








Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Five on a boat to Oxford - part 2

Monday was slow - very slow! But then, we weren't in any kind of hurry, unlike the numerous hire-boaters we spent our time with, all of whom had schedules to keep to, bases to be back to by a certain time on a particular day. Our schedule was vague. Christine and Mike had to be back at Yelvertoft by the 24th, to drive back to Torquay the following day, to return to work on the Monday. We were in no hurry to get anywhere in particular; we'd wind somewhere around Thrupp, we reckoned.

So, there was a lot of traffic that day. Braunston Tunnel was busy, and the Locks were hard work inasmuch as they involved a good deal of helping some rather novice boaters ahead of us and behind us. Oh, and sharing locks with us. Our three visitors are fairly experienced, so, with Grace at the tiller, we were able to lend a hand or six to others. That's always usually fun, and it's good to meet other boaters. One surprise was the encounter with a hopeful who was trying to turn his boat in the width of the canal ("I've done it before lots of times!"), got it jammed and needed the assistance of three of us to get him free. He didn't even look embarrassed.



We moored above Bottom Lock for lunch, and watched the crowd of boats behind us slowly disperse before moving on to Braunston Turn, where we turned left towards Oxford. We moored for the night below Bridge 100 just before the weather turned stormy.



And it poured for much of the night, but we awoke on Tuesday under a much more peaceful sky.


So on we went, with fewer boats on the move, the canal delightful as always, the colours of the trees amazing, the fields dotted with sheep and cows, many of them still quite young. Passing Napton Junction aka Wigrams Turn, and arriving at Napton Bottom Lock. Here, we took on water, and Christine and Mike went shopping. The very convenient shop nearby - "Open every day" - was closed. A vollie at the locks suggested the sign should read "Open sometimes". Fortunately, Mike found a local Post Office that sold the bread and milk we needed.


It was at Napton Locks that we caught up with several of the hire-boats. These locks are single-width, so our ascent was again slowed by the learner drivers and the learner lock-wheelers, all doing their best, but clearly not well-tutored by the hire companies who had taken their money in exchange for the experience. No problem, though. It was fun, helping out.

Looking back at Bottom Lock

Around 100-head of Water Buffalo




We moored north of Priors Hardwick Bridge. The wind was whipping up - our share of storm Aileen - but we were well sheltered by the hedgerow, and we spent a peaceful evening and night there.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Five on a boat to Oxford - part 1


This was to be our major cruise of the year! Only two weeks of it, but the longest of the year so far, and likely to hold that record until 2018 begins. It seems that things have conspired against us over the past months, but we're not going to let that stop us enjoying ourselves, nor interfere with the fun to be had by Christine and Dorothy, Grace's sisters, and Mike, Christine's husband. These two have featured in previous blog posts as well as two of my books.

(By the way, have you seen the Towpath Talk review of my latest book?


Dead chuffed with that, I am!)

So, with the weather looking better than just OK, we started out within an hour of the visitors arriving at around 3:00pm, mooring not long afterwards opposite Crick Marina. Here, we found out just how crowded or otherwise our 60-foot Kantara was going to be for the week ahead. We'd experienced it earlier in the year, when three friends spent three days with us. That hadn't been too bad, and our second week this time would only see four of us aboard, with Dorothy leaving on our second Monday.

On Tuesday, we set off through Crick Tunnel and on to Watford Locks. Dorothy worked out that she'd been there last some thirty years ago, at a time when she and her erstwhile husband were enjoying canal holidays annually. She was fascinated by a small collection of photos in the vollie-hut that showed the site back in the 1980s. We had a while to wait before descending, so she could take her time.







The weather was very varied, with the strongly-gusting winds that had been the reason why we set out late and travelled so little distance the day before - we didn't fancy trying to leave the marina in winds like that! We moored after bridge 3, Balls Bridge.

Photograph taken by Clive and Fran Dutson

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Please note that another update to "Hints and tips..." has been added to the Addendum Blog.