8
- 10 July 2005
Calcutt to Fenny Compton & back
(22 miles, 24 locks, 15.4 engine hours)
Friday evening
and we are joined on board by Amanda and Martin for their first trip on
a narrowboat. The plan is to get away this evening and travel for an hour
or so. We quickly get everything on board and Ian takes us out of the
marina. Very worried looks from Amanda and Martin - they are concerned
that the fenders are so small and that we have taken them up now we are
on the move and going into locks. Why? well they have a yacht and that
is lot less resistant to the odd bump along the side.
Moored
for the night between bridges 111 and 112 on the Oxford Canal. Plan was
to be up relatively early the next morning to get a good run up the Napton
flight - other people also had the same idea and it took us quite some
time to get up, with at least 4 boats ahead of us and no-one coming down.
The boat immediately in front of us had a group of Australians on board
and this was their first experience of locks. As we came through the first
lock, we saw two of their crew on the canal bank waving their boat hook
about in the water. They told us they had lost one of the 'dangly things'
and couldn't reach it, could we help? Turned out they had lost a fender
which was floating with a long rope attached to it. I impressed myself,
let alone anyone else, by managing to hook it with the boat hook on the
first attempt.
We all continued
slowly up the locks; at one point, we thought the Australians were mooring
up for a coffee break as they had 3 spikes in the ground and were well
roped in, but they were just waiting their turn for the lock. The girl
who was on the tiller certainly handled the boat well, she was a bit hampered
by her crew but, hey, we've all been newbies at some stage and they were
enjoying themselves.
As
we got to the Engine House Arm, we saw that cream teas were still on offer
and would be available between 3pm and 6pm. Made another mental note to
try to be there at the right time on the way home. Martin had already
had a couple of goes at steering and by the tow locks at MarstonDoles
was confident enough to attemp the locks. For those of you that know the
canal, you will recall that there is quite a sharp turn coming out of
the top lock at Marston Doles. There was a boat waiting to come down as
we came out and for some reason decided to turn right across our path
as we came out of the lock and round the turn. Tricky, but Martin managed
Per Angusta well, helped by her very responsive nature.
Traffic thinned
out as we moved away from the locks and we cruised in glorious weather
along the summit. Amanda declined to have a go at steering but took the
opportunity to relax in the cratch area and get her nails up to form -
a luxury she doesn't often get time for. After we went past bridge 134
we started to look for a nice place to moor for the night - the plan was
to wind at the Wharf just beyond bridge 136 and come back to our selected
spot for the night. Got to the winding hole and thought that our plans
were scuppered - there was a boat moored across the farside of the winding
hole and it was chained there. Ian tried to get Per Angusta round avoiding
the boat but at one stage we were stuck across the canal, with the bow
up hard against the moored boat and the stern close to the tow path. This
was a 70ft winding hole but the moored boat really hampered us. In the
end, I had to get onto the moored boat and push Per Angusta's nose round
really hard. Manoeuvring over, we headed back to our selected moorings
and settled down for the evening.
Next
morning the sun was shining and the promise was for another lovely day
- this was our view from the windows. We weren't in that much of a hurry
to get away and so I decided it was time for some brass polishing. The
mushrooms, houdini hatch, navigation lights, etc. all came up a treat
without too much elbow grease - Ian needed sun glasses they were so bright.
The weather was being so kind to us and we cruised happily along the cut
BUT we got the timing wrong again and arrived too early for cream teas.
Martin and I walked along the tow path for quite a while and Martin was
surprised at how much more he noticed this time compared to yesterday
- it wasn't just grass, but lots of different varieties, there were all
sorts of different insects and flowers - he could see how relaxing this
form of boating was. There was a steady stream of boats coming up the
locks so we went down at a good speed.
When planning
the food for this trip, I had decided that we would have a full roast
beef dinner in the evening before setting off for home. Sunday was turning
out to be the hottest days of the year so far but we'd pretty much eaten
all the rest of the food I'd brought along. So as we cruised home towards
Calcutt, I put the beef in the oven. The locks were quite busy with boats
going both ways - there were a lot of rumbly tums
as we went through, because the smells coming out of Per Angusta were
wonderful. We moored up just after the locks to eat dinner rather than
go into the marina and eat on the pontoon. Although I say so myself, the
Sunday roast was excellent and what I was particularly happy about was
the way Per Angusta handled the heat of the day and the heat from the
oven - the houdini hatch above the cooker definitely works very well in
keeping the internal temperatures down.
As the evening
drew in, we moored up at the marina and wished Amanda and Martin a safe
journey home. They had enjoyed their first weekend aboard a narrowboat
- in two weeks time we will be on board Gazelle, their yacht, for a weekend's
sailing.
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