Back Into Cropredy Marina

 Monday 27th Septemeber 2021 in Cropredy Marina.

Awoke to very heavy rain thundering on the roof. Fortunately, it had eased off by the time we set off.

This was once a tunnel on the summit pound, but the roof was unstable and was eventually removed leaving a narrow cutting. Good job that we didn't meet anyone coming the other way!

We moored up for a coffee break, and for R to take a conference call, back at this field where we saw workers installing field drains last week. It was all finished, the trenches all filled in and order restored in a very neat fashion.

We love the Oxford Canal summit pound, which meanders through the countryside with just the occasional bridge to negotiate.

The wind became very strong and dark clouds gathered as we went into Cropredy Marina. There was a queue for the service bay, so R had to hover in the middle of the marina and reverse each time the wind tried to blow MM on to the other moored boats.

Eventually the service bay became free and we were able to moor up and unload stuff from MM into the car. This was at the height of the panic buying of diesel, so everyone was quite surprised that we didn't want to fill MM up!

Next to the service bay was our friend Angela's boat "Glad" with a "For Sale" notice on it. Sad that she has decided to sell it but it has not been the most reliable of her many boats.

M spent some time at the Claydon Flight picking sloes to take up to Christine in the Lakes to make sloe gin. There has been a bumper harvest of sloes this year.

Finally we moored up MM in the same berth as before and made her secure.

Our efforts were watched by a very friendly, and probably hungry, duck. Unfortunately for her, we had already loaded all the available food into the car on the other side of the marina.

Tomorrow, Adrian will drive up here and leave his car in the car park while the three of us drive up in the Touran to spend time with Christine in the Lake District. We shall be up there for a week before going home for a few days. We plan to be back on 8th October to take MM down to Aynho for her partial repaint.

Today: 4 miles, 8 locks and 3.7 hours.

Trip: 476 miles, 260 locks and 240.2 hours.