A little cruise.

0 Locks 6 miles moored back at bridge 58 Oxford canal.
Total of 221 locks and 233¹/₂ miles and 8 Tunnels since 5th Nov 2006

After yesterdays walking marathon we decided that we would move the boat closer to places where we wanted to go today. So we had to go up to the winding hole by the Rugby arm. On the way back we passed n/b Balmaha moored a couple of hundred yards south of where we had been but the boat was all locked up so Mo and Vanessa must have been in town shopping. Sorry we missed you guys.

The hallowed rugby football fields of Rugby

We moored up at bridge 66 and walked into a different part of Rugby. After a short visit it was back to the boat for lunch and as we were moored opposite Clifton Cruisers I called in to see about getting a gasket for the engine. Unfortunately Isuzu will only deal with recognized traders and not private individual owners. After a quick phone call to Isuzu I was assured that a gasket was not required after all. While talking to Paul of Clifton Cruisers I asked him about the old bridge abutment opposite his yard. He told me that it was an old LNWR line from Rugby to Clifton upon Dunsmore and the viaduct just to the south went to the same station from Hillmorton. The track formed a triangle with the main line and the railway used this track as a way of turning trains as well as a branch line. We then cruised on down to the winding hole at Hillmorton locks.

Photo of the beautiful gardens in Caldicot park in Rugby

Arriving at the 2 water points prior to the winding hole we found 2 boats moored. The first boat had been supposedly taking on water at the first tap but his hose was not connected. The 2^nd boat was just moored by the 2^nd tap and the couple aboard just locked up and left. Now how inconsiderate is that. We managed to squeeze in between 2 boats by the first water point and after about 20 minutes a guy popped his head out and apologized for being on the water point but he had fallen asleep while his boat filled up. The only trouble was that his hose wasn’t connected to the tap and he thanked me for taking it off the tap to which I responded that it was already off when we got there.
The next problem was boats moored in or too close to the winding hole. A gentleman waiting to go up through the locks offered to hold my bow rope on the tow path side while I swung the stern around under power. This was alright until I came very close to a moored boat which I suspect was an unmarked hire boat or ex hire boat and breasted up to a BW working boat. I was unable to use the rudder as I was hard up against this boat by now so I had to push Gypsy Rover around by walking along the other boats gunnels until I had enough space to use the rudder again. Again more mutterings about inconsiderate so called boaters.
The trip back to Elliots Field was slow as there was quite a lot of boats on the move considering that it’s only Thursday.

Different view of the gardens

This evening we spoke to a couple walking back to their boat, and guess what, more flipping Kiwis. They are from the Hawkes Bay, have only been here 2 weeks and bought a second hand boat to cruise the country with.