Nicely refreshed….

I have been away, had a nice weekend with Jess and family in Kent, left Paul at the golf course where for the majority of the time ours was the only boat there which I find very strange as it is normally a very popular spot.

We left this morning stopping for water, going up the locks was fun, at least both sides are open now. At the bottom lock as Paul was leaving the water point I went up to set the lock, there was a hire boat in the other lock and they had been there for quite a while, I noticed that there was water still coming from the bottom paddles, so checked as they appeared to be down but they weren't all the way down so the pound was rapidly emptying so sorted that little problem out then a volunteer locky came on duty and helped them. I walked up to next lock catching up with the hire boat who was attempting to land his crew so I whistled them and opened the gates, of course they then had the problem of the crew getting off from inside the lock (at this point I will say the couple were our age) once ashore the lady then started to open the bottom paddles Paul shouted and explained the top ones needed opening. The lady said they had had no instruction at all on locking in fact no instruction at all you could see she was getting really stressed out buy the whole business so shame on you Ashby boats for not giving enough instruction. Again the locky appeared and he talked them through the top lock we by this time had made a hasty exit.

We did pass this wide beam which we found strange as you don't normally see them this far down.

They must have winded by bridge 74 there didn't appear to be any one on board.

Approaching bridge 79 was this sign,

Then this one,

On the bridge was this,

on the other side,

So, some of  the repairs are being done by volunteers and a good job they were doing to.

Coming up to bridge 80 again repairs were taking place, there was a boat waiting and tug Herbert with Andy at the helm came through he shouted that there was a boat behind him. The boat that was waiting went under the bridge and a chap in a high viz jacket and hard hat was waving at us so we carried on, that was a big mistake as a hire boat was squeezing past the boat in front of us so it was into reverse to let the hire boat through. I jumped off ran up to make sure there was nothing coming which there was so I asked the people to wait for us to come through, as he approached the bridge Paul was spitting feathers and shouted to the guys on the bridge “why did you wave me through” silence was the reply. So the moral of this tale is as you approach either bridge 79 or 80 on the North Oxford be aware the canal has a bit of a width restriction by both of them and make sure nothing is coming in the opposite direction.

So we are settled again, we have heard from Betty and Graham who are  hoping to be part of a flotilla travelling on the Manchester Ship canal to divert past the breach at Preston Brook. They don't know how long they have to wait before C&RT arrange this  and it is going to cost them over a £100 for the privilege.