Stratford to Napton

Date -  6 July

We woke this morning to find most of the boats that had been moored around us left and a couple had also gone by, I had just started the engine at 10 am ready to set off when I received a phone call from Steve on NB Blue Moon, who had been moored directly ahead of us last night to tell us that the next lock was out of action and was likely to be so for the rest of the day and probably part of tomorrow, as the gate hinge had come free of the the masonry and allowed the gate to fall over. British Waterways were on the scene but once the repair was complete it would need to harden. As we needed to charge the batteries we winded, went back down the Stratford canal for one lock, winded again and came back to the same mooring we were on last night. I took the opportunity to do a few jobs, but unfortunately it keeps raining and the main job is the engine room door that will require leaving open with clamps on when its done.

After lunch a couple more boats arrived and pulled in behind us, Luckily for them we wandered down for a chat as we had seen them at the festival. The gent went along the off side gunwale for some reason, next thing was a shout and a splash as he went into the water, I shot over the bow and round the cratch and manage to reach his hand and called the chap off the next boat to come and help. His wife threw a life ring at him complete with all the line. Once the second chap had hold I retrieved the life ring, unwrapped the line and we got the chap to put one arm and his head through it, we then walked him to the stern where his wife had lowered a rope ladder with wooden rungs into the water but she hadn't fixed it. With the rungs floating it was a waste of time anyway and as we pulled the chap round the stern of his boat he grounded in about 3 foot of water and was able to stand up, it still took the two of us to help him out onto the concrete wharf side. When this all started to unfold I whipped my glasses off and laid them on top of the cratch from where they slid into the cut, but luckily for me I was able to find them after about 5 minuets use of a rake. After all the excitement I decided to take a chance on the weather and refix the engine room door liner.

 

You will find our latest position the same as last night at
http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route