OK, so there are places where steering a 70 footer is trickier than a shorter boat, and the summit of the Oxford is one of them. Not impossible, though it would help if boats coming the other way eased off a bit, and didn’t leave us stemmed up across the inside of the bend, but it did demand concentration in a way that ambling along the cut doesn’t usually.
We’ve gone back to doing two hours on, two off on the tiller, otherwise it becomes a bit of a chore, keeping focussed all the time.
Sheila got going at half seven and chugged along whilst I breakfasted. The real hairpin at Bridge 131 was the hardest, but we got round without touching. Arriving at Fenny Compton, we were able to go straight onto the waterpoint and refill the tank. We’d planned to use a 48 hour mooring just beyond, but as we were finishing off, another boat arrived and took the best bit of it.
Happily, the Napton hireboat waiting to water told us that there was plenty of mooring further on, so we pottered on and found a much better spot on the 14 day length before the marina.
A spot of fiddling about with hooks on the back of a cupboard door in the galley (to take a rubbish bag) filled in the time before lunch.
The weather is being very off and on today; it would be good to get some more Incralacking done, but with thunder storms forecast, maybe it’ll have to wait. High spot of the day, I saw my first kingfisher of the year; they really have been knocked back by the winter.
Later: The rain held off for long enough, and now both Houdinis are lacquered. Yippee!
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