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.


2 comments:

  1. What a fantastic review! I now feel doubly guilty that I haven't read your book yet, Roger. I absolutely must. My only excuse is having been away for so long without e-book access. I read a lot of real books while we were away, as well as some I already had on my Kindle, but I couldn't download any new ones. I shall correct that forthwith. Now about your travels, I'm so glad you've managed to get away. It looks as if you've been having a good time and I'll look forward to catching up with the rest!

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  2. Guilt quite unnecessary, Val! I really don't know how you get to read so very many books anyway, but being out on the canals is an extremely good reason NOT to be reading so much!

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