At Enslow Marina, where MM will spend the Winter

Friday 26th October, 2012 at Enslow Marina.
The idea today was to start early and get up to the Rock of Gibraltar (where MM was launched last year) for lunch at the pub with Tiffany from Kingsground, and then tea on MM with M's "second son," Scott, and his two children. Just shows that it's better not to make plans as you will see!!
We left our mooring in Oxford across the canal from Jericho and the site of the first ever "Inspector Morse" episode (see Monday's entry) early, but not as early as we had planned.
Progress was slow up the Oxford Canal due to the many "residential" moored boats (courtesy requires that one has to slow down past moored boats) and the number of lift bridges, some of which were reluctant to stay up and M had to prop them open with MM's pole.

Although there were very few boats moving on the canal, unfortunately we came up behind another boat also going north, so we had to wait at every lock for them to go through and then we had to empty the lock before we could go in. This made our progress even slower. It was also a very cold and damp day, not the nicest to be out on the stern for hours on end.

The locks seem to be so narrow! We are not used to them!

We passed through the lovely village of Thrupp with its "Boat Inn" pub - another location that featured in "Inspector Morse"
Further up the canal, we passed nb "Quercus" which is owned by Terry Robertson's partner Pat.

Terry was our instructor on our Helmsman's Course; his boat (nb "Shropshire Lass") and "Quercus" are normally based at Gnosall on the Shropshire Union Canal. Pat was involved in the organisation of the Olympics and "Quercus" took part in the Queen's Jubilee flotilla on the Thames in July.
With such slow progress, it was fairly obvious that we were not going to reach the Rock of Gibraltar by lunchtime but then Tiffany called to say that it was her daughter Ruby's birthday and her relatives had turned up to celebrate, so she would not be able to join us today anyway.
At Shipton Weir Lock, we met up with a family on a rental boat.  It was only their second day's cruising and they cheerfully admitted that they had no idea what they were doing but were obviously enjoying themselves hugely - lovely!  M helped them through the next couple of locks before they moored up for lunch so we parted company as we approached the Rock of Gibraltar.

It was very emotional to return to the spot where MM had been launched one year and two weeks ago. As it was now well past lunchtime, we decided to go on to the marina just a few hundred yards past the pub.
Back at Shipton Weir Lock, Scott had phoned to say that he had confused our location at Upper Heyford with Heyford near Northampton and so would not be able to make it to see us today after all!! So much for our plans - we could have taken it easy instead of rushing to get to Enslow for Tiffany and Scott!
Tiffany had told us where to moor at the marina, so we slipped MM in between nb "Sea Jay" and nb "Sheila Pearl" into what used to be the berth for nb "Barneswood" - so a good pedigree!

In the past, we had met the owners of the two boats on either side of us, so we know that we have good neighbours.  It is comforting to know that they both live aboard and will be able to keep an eye on MM for us throughout the winter.
A tap on the door as it got dark turned out to be Richie, one of the carpenters from Kingsground.  He built his own boat "Grayling" entirely himself and she was finally launched last month. She's now moored here in the marina and he kindly invited us over to see her later this evening.
After dinner, we walked down to "Grayling" and duly presented ourselves. We met his friend James, who also lives on a boat in the marina, and had a tour of "Grayling." Richie has done a superb job on her with a lovely use of different woods throughout the boat. He is also a keen cook, so "Grayling" has a large and well appointed kitchen (bigger than MM's!).  We stayed much longer than we anticipated, enjoying their company and sharing a bit more than just the one bottle of wine. A lovely welcome to Enslow marina.!
As we walked back to MM in the dark (way past M's bedtime), the moon was just peeking through the clouds; it's the first time we've seen the moon for three weeks.
Today: 9 miles, 6 locks and 5.3 hours.
Trip: 349 miles, 331 locks and 328.8 hours (482.7 total).
Since MM's launch: 595 miles, 480 locks and 482.7 hours.