Back on the Oxford and a New Granddaughter.

Monday 16th to Friday 21st August 2021 from Eynsham to Cropredy

We had booked MM into Cropredy for 21st so that we could go home for a month because M's daughter Elle is expecting our ninth grandchild in the next few days. M had to stay home for a couple of days so R drove up to Cropredy, left the car at the marina and then took a train back to Oxford and a bus out to Eynsham to pick up MM on his own. All fairly complicated!

Having said goodbye to Richie at Eynsham, R and MM sailed together down the Thames to King's Lock, Duke's Cut and the junction with the Oxford Canal. At the junction, the vegetation almost obscures the signpost!

Being back on a narrow canal makes single handing so very much easier and, by Wednesday morning, R moored MM at Little Heyford next to Heyford Station to await M's arrival by train. The pretty little station couldn't be much closer to the canal!

As M arrived on the train, we had a lovely surprise as the driver of the train was Jon Atwood, who did all the beautiful woodwork on MM's interior. After he was made redundant by Kingsground, our boat builder, he retrained as  a train driver. It was wonderful to see him, if only briefly.

The Oxford Canal is very narrow after the wide reaches of Old Father Thames.

Somerton Deep Lock lives up to its name, it is a long way down or, in this case, up.

On Wednesday night, we moored at Aynho, where MM is booked in for a partial repaint in October. Sadly both our friend Simon and Matt, the owner, were on holiday, but the "Brew Box" was open for breakfast and M had one of their outstanding bacon butties.

In Banbury, we passed Tooley's Yard and met up with Matt Armitage, the owner, who was working on the boat moored next to us.

Our overnight mooring on Thursday was just south of Cropredy out in the countryside under a lovely evening sky.

On Friday morning, we made an early start on a glorious late summer morning in order to arrive at Cropredy by 9:00am, when the marina opens.

MM will stay here until mid September while we go home to be around to help with the new baby. After closing MM up and paying our mooring fee (and meeting Matt Armitage for a second time!), we left to drive home.

16th to 20th August: 33 miles, 21 locks and 18.5 hours.

Trip: 452 miles, 240 locks and 226.0 hours.

UPDATE!

Little Willow Elisabeth Hayes arrived on time on 27th August, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz. Both mother and baby are doing very well. She is a beautiful and very calm baby and spends most of her time eating and sleeping.