A Short Cruise and Lots of Polishing.

Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th June 2025 in Somerton.

 We arrived back at MM in the afternoon and decided to stay overnight rather than leaving immediately, so we overnighted in the mooring outside the workshop. Simon and Matt had done a great job on the service and we chatted to them about blacking MM's hull in the autumn.

On Tuesday morning, we moved up to the service bay to fill up with water and to have a bit of breakfast at the Brew Box.

This is one of the bridges that was not left open but it had a hydraulic mechanism that was operated with a windlass. M said that still needed a lot of full turns of the windlass (about thirty!) to get it open The mechanism is on the black pole in the foreground.

The first lock after Aynho is Somerton Deep Lock, which lives up to its name as the deepest lock on the Oxford Canal.

This lovely nameboard was bizzarely on the towpath in the middle of nowhere and so of interest only to passing boaters and walkers, who probably knew where they were anyway! Nice to see, nonetheless.

 Another very hot day. We didn't travel far and moored up not long after the lock next to a very large open field as R wanted to work on cleaning and polishing the side of MM which was now next to the towpath. He also took the opportunity to clean and polish the bow area.

 Today: 3 miles, 1 locks and 1.6 hours.

Trip: 112 miles, 52 locks and 54.9 hours.