After another excellent evening with John and Nev, we nevertheless managed an early start this morning, boating off at seven, leaving behind a Waimaru still drowsing behind drawn curtains.
It was a good run under overcast skies through Osney Lock, under Folly Bridge and down Iffley Lock. Sandford soon followed; we had a bit of anxiety there, as the top gates were looking very odd on approach, with one fully open and the other half closed. They closed OK once I’d taken Sanity Again in, and despite the control lights behaving strangely, Sheila was able to cycle the lock and let me out onto the long reach to Abingdon.
That was a fast run; it’s deep and wide, and with few bends, so Sanity Again was able to show her paces, without causing a breaking wash or disturbing the early morning fishermen.
We had to wait for another boat to finish using the pump out machine above the lock, and one other turned up just as we were starting, but it’s a good machine, and made short work of our full toilet tank.
Once down the lock, we were found a space just barely 70 feet long on the meadow moorings above the bridge. Waimaru showed up later and was able to tie just downstream of the boat below us, so we may be in for a night in the pub tonight.
Spending the full five days here is the plan; we’ve made an initial trip to Waitrose, but it’ll take a few more to replace all the stores we used during the run up to Lechlade. Meantime, Sheila was able to identify this fellow:
He’s a Red Crested Pochard in eclipse plumage.
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