UK Canals - Journey reports

Back to Barby

We left early.  Turned out to be a good move.  The HS2 engineers were busy banging sheet piling into the back of the towpath I guess at a position where the bridge abutments will be located.  They stopped work while we passed.  I guess because it is a noisy job and my ears need protecting.  (I'm deaf anyway and my hearing aids have a noice cancelling funtion which is brilliant on the back of the boat because the engine and propeller noise is largely cancelled out).  We reached the top of Marston Doles at 7:50.  Nobody about, so down the first lock, having checked the water level in the pound below first.  The second lock was full, but just as I was about to get the boat in, a swan swam in.   I think they (swans) must be very savvy knowing that I will have to get the bread out to entice them out.   That worked.   Napton top lock was swarming with a hire boat family as I approached, all appearing to be having a really fun time, so much so that a young teenager offered to work the lock for me in spite of my protestations that it wasn't necessary.  OK!  Gift horse and all that!  The next two locks were opposite directions at exactly the right time and after that I was on a roll, so as to speak culminating in a really chatty volunteer lock keeper at the bottom lock who had the gate open for me as I arrived.  I exited the bottom at 9:50.   The GU section allows for faster speed up until the piled section where moored boats abound, and coming up behind a really slow boat getting tangled up with opposite direction stuff and moored boats tends to make me fall asleep, so we moored up at bridge 100 for "lunch".  The Oxford was busy with moored boats in all the usual places, probably having lunch as well.   There are some tricky bridges once past the Dunchurch Pools Marina with poor visibilty on the other side requiring a slow approach.  At one of these with a following sharp right hand bend, we were were just through the bridge when a boat appeared in front obviously cutting the corner and needing an emergency stop on my part.  Shortly after that we were back in the marina.  It had been a really warm day and fluid replacement for the single hander has to be prepared in advance.  I had a large jug of pink squash on the back which looked just like red diesel.  It ceratainly kept the boat moving.

Oxford Canal:Back to Br 123

Pat, the one who is not very well, thought it sensible that we should turn round now and return to Barby and home.   Unfortunately the first opportunity to wind is at the bottom of the Claydon Flight, so it means going down the 6 locks, then turning round and coming back up.  I went to check the state of the flight and found that the Canal and River Trust guy responsible for the water had all the paddles up at the top lock and was letting water down.  So in spite of this, our “early departure” was still 07:45.  Not bad at all, and with the chaps help for the first 3 locks I had soon reached the bottom only to find that there were 4 boats there waiting to come up. “All best laid plans etc”.   It was about 11:10 by the time I made it back and wild thoughts of doing Napton Locks today evaporated, because I have to set aside time for cooking food.  So we first made for Fenny Compton for lunch (and a pint) then continued on back to Bridge 123 where we knew we could moor.  It was now 15:45 hrs.   The aim tomorrow is to get back to Barby

Oxford Canal:Claydon Top Lock

We were having breakfast this morning and notice the canal current clipping by in the direction of Marston Doles at around 45 to 60 feet per minute.  Just wondering if there is still a problem with that top pound?   Anyway, we set off on our windy way and soon came to the massive work-site that is all to do with HS2.   The huge spoil heaps on the southern side resulting from the cutting will no doubt be used to build the embankment on the north side of the canal.  It looks like foundations for the canal bridge are being dug now.   To the north, the track line disappears to the horizon with lines of heavy trucks travelling to and fro.   No wonder it is costing billions.   Before all this, there was an attempt to get parliamentary support for reviving the Great Central Railway as a freight only route built to European standards, which the great Central originally was.   Many of the bridges still remain and there is even an orphaned decaying signal post still visible from the northern Oxford Canal just past Willoughby wharf.   Putting all this behind us we continued on, stopping at Fenny Compton for pump out.   The visitor moorings there were quite empty.  Further on, at the southern exit of the narrows that must have originally been Fenny Compton tunnel it was evident that the canal is very shallow and progress slow.   Having used our “allotted time” we stopped at the moorings just before Claydon Top Bridge.   A lovely afternoon for a stroll to the lock where there are a couple of benches.

Oxford Canal:Bridge 123

I reckoned about 40 minutes to the bottom of the Napton flight.  It turned out to be 50 minutes.  So we were there just before 9:00 am.  I wasn’t expecting a lock keeper to be there and there wasn’t one.  The lock was half full which suggested that I was the first up this morning.  All went as planned so on to the next.   This was empty, so less work!   Generally, on these single locks going up I try to swing one of the gates closed behind me, from the boat.  Usually it works with a little prop wash into the angle to help.  Then chuck a rope up and get up onto the bollard side. The ladder is always that side I find.   Close the remaining mitre gate and tie the boat back to avoid a run for the top gate when opening the top paddles.   (if at the helm I would have nudged the boat up to the top gate and held it there on tickover to avoid this, so no rope needed.)   The next lock was prepared for me by an opposite direction boater and then following on there always seemed to be some opposite direction fortune.   I would now, being at the top of the flight, have wanted to moor-up for lunch, however there are no convenient moorings there and for some distance further on it seems.  The first attempt further on failed because it was on a curve and shallow.  Finally I found a straight bit just past Bridge 123 with enough water at one end.  Normally we reckon to cruise 6 hours before looking for a mooring and have lunch on the fly, but with no active first mate mooring for lunch becomes the norm.   Then we are loathe to move.   Might need to break this custom if we are to get to Banbury with time to linger there and get back home again.   I am not accustomed to organising the catering, so things don’t seem to go as they should.  So I forgot to bring the eggs and also our usual dinner dessert standby, yoghurts.   However we have a food storage cupboard full of “stuff”, mostly in tins, and Pat has a baking cupboard with everything you could possibly need.   So it is possible to find something.   We used a tin of soup about 12 years old, a tin of peaches, a bit younger and some custard.  All this with a ready main meal thrown in.   Worked well.  (We used the Fray Bentos tinned meat pie on the last trip, so need to get another to put in store).

Ten days to Banbury

Pat, my wife and first mate has not been well these last few months.  The canal boat is Pat’s sanctuary but trips to the hospital rather keep us tethered to base, so when a window pops up we grab it.   There’s only so much you can do in a short period.  Our last trip was a visit to the Ashby.  A cruise short of the full length.  I wanted to do the London Ring again, but for a press on at all costs hire boater (as we once were) this is doable in two weeks.  I would rather take six and enjoy it.   So we will content ourselves to Banbury and back.   That should give us time to linger and enough locks for the time being.  After setting up the slow cooker with tonight’s meal we left Barby Moorings just around 8 a.m.   From the start there was opposite direction traffic seemingly in clutches.  I guess its the usual logic: the fastest at the back.  At Braunston Turn we turned right and pressed on aiming for just short of Wigrams Turn.   That turned out to take in all 4-1/2 hours.   This section is part of the Grand Union Canal and is blessed by loads of metal piling.   This attracts transiting moored boats, not long term stuff, and we have in the past fallen for its charms as we have today.   Sheet metal piling allows us to use our ready made mooring lines.  For the stern we have just an exact length of rope to give us a 45 degree fix with an eye for the offside stern dolly and the other end spiced into a robust piling clip.  This is pulled tight by the bow mooring which is a little bit more complicated as it includes a pully arrangement the pulling end going on the T stud in the normal way.