Flecknoe

Yesterday afternoon the sun was going down on Barby Reservoir, today it just forgot to come up again.

This morning the weather was quite dreary with thick cloud and fine cool drizzle, the most miserable weather for boating for sometime. It wasn’t long before we were approaching Braunston and it looks as if the old mill is all scaffolded out.

At Braunston Turn we pulled a hard right towards the South Oxford canal. This bit is both the S Oxford and the Grand Union canal as they share the route as far as Napton Junction. This wasn’t always the case and prior to the realignment of the N Oxford canal it joined the GU further east.
We passed a boat that not only had crocheted covers on the mushroom vents but also on the mooring pins. I hope that loop is well welded.

Or original plan was to go to ether Calcutt top lock to between Napton Junction and Napton for the night, but it really wasn’t pleasant boating weather so we pulled over for the night at Flecknoe.

Today’s Journey

6 miles with no locks in 2 hours.

Onley

The forecast was for rain today so we waited until that cleared, just before we set off this ladies rambling group went by, we caught up with them at Brownsover by which time their numbers had swelled to 12 .

Also while we were waiting a pair of Kites were circling overhead but they didn’t both come into shot together.

We pushed off at 11 am just after the ex-working boat Bristol went by with comments about sharing locks. We gave him bit of a start but could soon see him in the distance ahead, turned out he had caught up with some more boats and he was still below Hillmorton when we arrived. We worked up in tandem assisting each other as we went, following

the other two boats up the flight. Its surprising how much faster the original locks are than the newer ones. We went through the Offside top lock which has a  bottom paddle out as fast as our locking partner when through the nearside one.
After the locks I soon caught up with the boats ahead and Bristol caught up with me, so after Barby Straight I pulled over to let him pass as he wanted to make Branston this afternoon, where as we were mooring by the entrance to Dunchurch Pools marina.

Today’s Journey

7½ miles with 3 locks in 3¼ hours