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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