Pump out at Braunston, and lots of stuff at Rugby

30th & 31st May

We made a good start to the day yesterday, by going onto the towpath side sanitary station at Braunston and doing a pump out, starting off at eight o'clock for the purpose.

It proved to be a bit of a long job; the tank was quite full and rinsing out in particular took a while. In addition, the sluice there is quite high up, and it's difficult to keep the output hose from kinking as it climbs up to it. Believe me, the last thing you want is a kinked output hose when pumping out.

By 9.15 we were away again. Both Braunston and the canal north to Hillmorton were very busy, it being the end of half term week. By lunchtime we were working down the locks and found a mooring just beyond the water point, although it wasn't brilliant due to the unmodified North Oxford wash wall there, which is basically the original sloping stone side of the canal.

Very significant, heritage wise, no doubt, but a bit of a trial for a square sided BCN style hull.

After lunch we were stimulated to move on by the arrival of two very scruffy looking GRP cruisers, one towing the other. They moored just beyond where we were, and proceeded to unload an air cooled generator and a motor bike. They also set the tone by crushing and tossing into the cut the cans of Carlsberg they'd been drinking on arrival.

We untied and trolled round the corner to the further end of the visitor mooring, where, in fact, the edge is much squarer and thus more pleasant for an overnight mooring anyway.

Hardly had we done so than another disreputable boater turned up in the form of Will Chapman on Quidditch, on his way back from promoting Save Our Waterways at the Rickmansworth and Wendover Arm Festivals.

He stopped for a chat, taking the opportunity to ventilate a bit about a number of boating mishaps which had dogged him on his way back North, culminating in an incident at Fenny Stratford Lock which left his tiller bent like a banana. He had however had a good time at both shows, and Ricky in particular had been a good chance for waterways networking.

He set off again with the intention of getting to Hawkesbury Junction by nightfall.

During the afternoon I got Colin Jones's Fender Book out to remind myself of the procedure for making a side fender out of crown knots (i.e. the usual kind). The fancy fender rope proves to be easier to work than natural sisal, although being black it can be a bit hard to see what you are doing, especially in the tricky early stages.

Later on, we were assailed from both sides by speeders – boats on the cut, and the motor bike off the skanky boats on the towpath. Later still, one of said skanky boats came chugging past, only to return in the middle of the night.

Despite all this, we had a reasonable night, and made a decent start in the morning. Having decided not to pay 90 pence per litre at Braunston, we wanted to fill up at Clifton Cruisers, and wanted to get there before their returning hire boats had overwhelmed them.

I'm pleased to say that this strategy worked well. We got to Clifton just on nine, and actually moored on their wharf, the first time I've ever been there and not had to moor about two boats out. Furthermore, their diesel was only (ha!) 81 ppl, which since we took 130 litres meant a good saving on what it would have cost at Mr Coghlan's establishment. They are really nice and friendly people too – if you are passing, find an excuse to give them some business.

A short chug took us round to the Tesco mooring. It was quite busy, but we were able to moor reasonably close to the path to the store. Since it's the first supermarket we've seen since Wolverton, we had a good load to get. By asking at Customer Services on the way out, we got the help of their trolley executive, (the guy who goes round and collects them up, that is) who came and released the trolley wheel after we'd pushed it over the red line at the start of the path back to the boat. This means that you can take the trolley to the boat side, a big help with a big load.

On getting there, we found Braidbar number 79 (Sanity is 78), William, moored just by us. We had a good natter with them before going off to Homebase and Halford's in search of a new shower head and some replacement folding chairs.

I'm ashamed to admit I can't either recall for certain, or cross check, the names of William's owners, and having made a complete fool of myself at Crick mistaking David off Mehalaland for Brian off Kyle, I'm not going to risk another howler here! A quick comment from anyone who sees this and knows them would be welcome, and would help me disguise my benign senile forgetfulness in future.

We found a new shower head, but not any folding chairs we fancied, and pottered round to Newbold for the night. The moorings are pretty busy here as well, but there was plenty of room on the 48 hour ones when we got here at two o'clock. As I write now, however, (4.50) they are pretty full up right to the bridge before the water point and tunnel.

We've started the process of dumping our recycling, which was beginning to fill all available space in the boat, and I've almost finished the fender. Tomorrow, we'll get rid of more recycling as we go by the water point, and then plod on to All Oaks Wood. The plan is to get to Fradley for next weekend and a rendezvous with Elanor.