Back at last, but not quite plain sailing

Monday 4th July; Calcutt Marina to bridge 115, Napton flight

After far too long away from the boat, we nearly had to delay again.  Dave discovered a leak in the plumbing at home last night, so got up early to go to B&Q as soon as they opened to get the part he needed.  Luckily it was a straightforward fix and we were only an hour later than usual getting away. On the way we called into Evesham Marina to pick up a tin of raddle red paint – the most convenient way of getting the exact one we need.  Quite a nice little marina.

with an easy exit to the river.  Not sure what it would be like in times of flood though.

We had a lovely surprise when we got to Calcutt.  Someone - we suspect our fellow moorers who like playing with Meg – had left a toy for her tucked under the pram cover.  She approves!

It was past 5 when we left the marina, but we were keen to get moving after over a month away.  At the bottom lock a crew of first-time hirers had arrived and were delighted to have company up their first lock.  So we had a fairly speedy and pleasant ascent with congenial company.  At the top they pulled in to pick up crew, so we went off towards Napton. It wasn’t quite warm enough for shorts and almost rained at one point, but it was still lovely to be back afloat.  Naturally I felt obliged to snap a certain view of Napton …. It was cloudy but still rather too bright for a decent exposure.  A bit blurry too, but I had zoomed in as far as it would go and still had to crop, then enlarge the cropped picture, to actually see the windmill at all.

There was plenty of space on the Folly moorings, where our lock buddies were aiming for, but we thought we’d go up the first few locks and moor below Shut Bridge (115). The locks were deserted by now and we made good time, mooring at about 7.30.  But Dave couldn’t turn the engine off!  Up came the engine boards for the emergency stop.  Not very accessible as it turned out. 

While I cooked tea Dave refitted the headlamp.  The bracket had started to rot, so we took it home and he made another.  Must remember to adjust the angle of the lamp!

He also refitted the door of the bathroom cupboard, which had become so badly water-stained we took it home to work on.  Although stripping off the varnish and using oxalic acid had removed some of the staining it was still quite bad, so he applied some new veneer which has made it look good again.

 

It’s normally a quiet and pretty spot here.  Still pretty, but one of the boats moored here, a plastic cruiser, is having a lot of work being done on it.  As it got dark the chap started his generator.  It was just far enough away for us not to be badly affected, which was lucky as he ran it till 10.30.  You can just see him in this picture.There were two boats behind us last night but I don’t think either of them said anything.

Nearly 4 miles, 7 locks.