Five on a boat to Oxford - part 9

Saturday was my 66th birthday, and a beautiful day it was, too, as we made our way down to Braunston. Mike was at the tiller for much of the day, making the most of his last opportunity to be skipper. Down to Braunston Turn, and turn right...

and up to the locks. Rather alarmingly, the pound above bottom lock was very low, and NB Wagtail, a hire-boat with only a few days' canal experience, was aground at the bank. I hurried up to the next lock. The pound above that is bigger than the one below, and, though its level was noticeably lower than it should be, I reckoned it could afford to donate some water to the depleted one, so I let a lockful and a bit down, and the stranded boat floated within a few minutes. Kantara came up to meet her, and the two boats shared the rest of the locks up the flight. Despite the shallowness of the water all the way up, there were no more problems, and it all went smoothly.

The four men on Wagtail were very much into learning, and had lots of questions all the way up. The four women were very much into Prosecco...

Then came Braunston Tunnel. Wagtail was rather anxious about this - and not without reason - and their fears were realized half-way through. The skipper of an on-coming NB Huffler  chose to switch off his tunnel light as he was passing us. To avoid dazzling us, he said. Unfortunately, however, the man at Magpie's tiller had already been dazzled, and now had no way of knowing where the unlit boat was. They crashed rather noisily.

With Mike taking the tiller again, we carried on to Norton Junction, where he executed a perfect turn. We learned later that 70-foot Wagtail got themselves jammed across between the banks.

We joined a crew of three at the bottom of Watford Locks, with NB Bothar ahead and Wagtail coming in behind not long afterwards. The female crew were now totally blotto, and hadn't even noticed the collision in the tunnel. The 90-minute wait gave us plenty of time to have lunch, then Bothar led us up the locks. The last boat down before we went up was NB Brutus Maximus, with whom we went down into Liverpool last year. Enthusiastic shouts and waves were duly exchanged!

Again, our locking crew of three was able to assist Bothar and Wagtail in a smooth, sociable and fun ascent. The weather was warm, bright and beautiful.

Then Crick Tunnel and Yelvertoft Marina with miles of sunlit canal between. Beautiful.

118 miles and 94 locks, and a great trip!

Christine and Mike treated us to a lovely meal at The Wheatsheaf in Crick, and we played a final evening of cards. They left before 10:00 the next morning, with a long trip to Torquay ahead of them. We had a lot of washing and tidying to do!

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.

Limping back...

I didn't mention that when we broke down on Saturday, a group of women came along the towing-path and immediately showed great concern over our plight. I was just stealing myself to launch off the side of the boat, over tall stinging nettles and onto an invisible bank at the time. After my breathtaking jump and perfect landing, I looked up into the face of Jane. Jane and her husband Michael are old friends from when we lived in St Albans. Michael was our minister at the Baptist church there, but had left to go to Poland to teach in 2005, and returned four years later to take up the pastorate of Rugby Baptist Church, where we met up again in 2012. They live in Hillmorton, quite close to the place where we broke down.

Jane and her friends, having been assured that there really was nothing they could do to help, apart from telling us the nearest road bridge for the RCR man to drive to, went on their way. Later, I got a FB message from Michael offering us whatever help we might need; beds for the night, for example.

" I suspect this is not like calling out the AA?" he asked.

"RCR arrived quickly, the problem was sorted out, and we were on the move within a couple of hours." I replied. " It really is very much like calling out the AA - only wetter!!"

It had been a nice coincidence.

Talking of coincidences...

It was later that day, while we were moored and recovering, that Michelle and I had our "Hippocampus" moment. Do read about it if you haven't already! We're still amazed.

On Sunday morning, with Grace and Michelle still in a lot of pain, we carried on to Hillmorton Locks, which we ascended solo, though with a bit of help from a vollie at the bottom lock. We moored above the Admiral Nelson lock at Braunston. Another light day.

Sunday had been hot and sunny. Just the three Braunston locks had been a sweltering experience. Monday was cooler. We finished the locks in tandem with NB Mister E,

did the tunnel in style and a lot of drips, turned left at Norton Junction

and ran into a hold-up at Watford Locks.

The 45 minutes was enough time for us to have a bite to eat, after which Michelle got out to do the locking on this final flight. The rest of the journey was frustratingly slowed by a boat in front of us which was travelling so slowly that even our tick-over speed was too fast. He was well aware of us, but made no attempt to let us past for ages. Sorry, but, in the circumstances, we were a bit annoyed. Eventually, he stopped for us, and apologised as we overtook.

"I only go slow", he said.

Back at Yelvertoft, we had a very welcome dinner at The Wheatsheaf, and Michelle drove back home on Tuesday morning. We all agreed that, despite the injuries and break-down, we'd had a really good time together.