As the map on the “What’s New” page is getting complicated I have added, where possible, individual weekly mooring maps.
Our week 4 started with the washday blues. We don’t have a washing machine on board and we had failed to find a laundrette anywhere in or around Market Harborough and Bl**dy covid again - the marinas we spoke to would not allow us to enter their marina for a night or two to use the laundry facilities “we must protect our permanent berth holders” they cried. OK I can understand that but we were starting to run out of clean everything.
A couple of years ago we had stayed in the caravan close to Braunston and had used a laundrette in nearby Daventry, we could go on our e-bikes as it was only 3.8 miles away (4.4 by car). Well! we could until we had got all the laundry sorted. There were five big bags and a big rucksack full of it. Oh well we quite fancied a taxi ride.
The laundry cost us just £13.00 while the taxi was £20.80 thats a whopping £4.72 a mile. Still it’s done now and Sue says if done on a more or less daily basis she can keep on top of it by hand washing - even bedding as she did in the first two lockdowns.
Our reward for all this endeavour was a meal in the Boathouse Inn. Did I say reward??? The beer was both poor and expensive, the non-alcoholic cocktail Sue fancied again poor and expensive while the food was acceptable - but only just, until that is I woke feeling Moby Dick the following morning. I can’t see us ever going back there or recommending it to others.
We did not go far today, Tuesday, just 5.1/2 miles which took us on to the section of the Oxford Canal that is joined by the Grand Union Canal for a few miles. They separate again at Napton Junction or as it is more commonly called Wigrams Turn. We continued for a short while on the Oxford Canal Southern Section and moored just beyond Tomlow Road Bridge 109 (what3words - breeding.still.treatment). This evening we walked to Calcutt Marina, chatted to a couple of the live-aboards we knew, Gilly, busy working to get his boat ready for when his partner retires (she is in the army and retires at an age most can only dream about) and Paul who took us out on an “experience day” in November 2019 on his beautiful NB Orient as well as a short pre-purchase cruise on NB RoJo and a “how to do it day” again on NB RoJo. We had left the car tucked away at the back of Calcutt marina which we now collected and parked very close to where we were moored.
Wednesday, Brother Richard is visiting today, he will stay a few days when we hope to continue our journey down the South Oxford Canal and then he will take the car back to Essex where we hope his youngest Lauren will get some use from it. While we still had access to it we did a big shop then collected Richard from Rugby railway station.
“ . . . hope to continue our journey . . . “ turned into no hope, Thursday was very windy so we stayed where we were and on Friday we braved the wind and went, getting just 1.1/2 miles before calling it a day. We had planned to fill with water at the bottom of the Napton Locks before rising through the locks then finding somewhere to moor. We stopped on the 14 day moorings about 1/4 mile before the locks and, of course, the water point. (what3words - (louder.locate.helpfully)
We were moored very close to the local “Napton Cidery” so we had a wander down there for a look see. None of us are cider drinkers but we managed to come back with a couple of litres of the stuff which, as it was put in a flagon from a large container was a) flat and b) had a shelf life of just 3 or 4 days. We drank it all but it was hard work and is not an experiment that any of us wish to repeat anytime soon!
Friday was ‘orrible, wet and windy, just ‘orrible. We decided not to move but to get the car and park it close by. We looked at Google Maps. The car was just 1.1/2 miles away. We could get it by bike. There were only two bikes between the three of us and Mr Google suggested we could walk it in around 30 minutes. We walked it in around 45 minutes.
While we still had its use we took in more visits to Tesco and Co-Op and afterwards managed to get a parking space just yards from the boat.
Saturday morning was better, weather wise. Sue and I decided that we could not go another day without a shower so must go to the water point which would then commit us to going up the locks and necessitate Richard getting a taxi back to the car but SandS were desperate for those showers. We readied everything, did the engine checks and moved around the corner to the water point, filled the tank and emptied the rubbish.
It seemed daft to cruise away from the car when it was just yards away so we reversed the boat back around the corner and moored, in a 48 hour mooring (what3words - (nurse.landmark.commuting). We had a pleasant rest of Saturday and around 4.15 pm Richard set off home.
Sunday we were up with the lark ready to move further south towards our goal of Oxford. Then we saw the weather. The rain was persisting down. We had breakfast. The rain was persisting down. We did the engine checks. The rain was persisting down. We had another cup of tea. The rain was persisting down.
We will move tomorrow!
This week we have passed through no locks have cruised 7.1/4 miles and added 5.1/2 hours to the engine run time.
Since we left the Calcutt mooring on 5th July we have travelled 172 miles, passed through 104 locks and added 105 hours to the engine run time.
We hope to achieve much much less in August, except in the relaxing and slowing down stakes.