Aylesbury Arm

Clear. I can see all the way down to the bottom of the canal here at Puttenham,

It's pretty unusual to see the bottom of the rudder and the end of the skeg it sits on. I think this means there's been very little traffic here recently.

Aylesbury

Down to Aylesbury.
The Aylesbury arm is a quiet backwater but I think it's worth a visit. The arm is only 6 miles long but there are 16 locks to negotiate. Moorings are a bit sparse and some sections of the canal are only just wide enough for a single narrowboat. I used to go to school in Aylesbury, crossing the canal every day, so taking the boat to Aylesbury was on my wish list

Here's the replacement for the bridge I used to cross

There are actually plenty of visitor moorings once you get the centre of Aylesbury, and also at Circus Fields, the Aylesbury Canal Society's basin just outside the centre, so you could quite easliy spend two weeks in the centre of Aylesbury.
Today, I refitted the restored Cratch board. I've changed to colour and adjusted the position of the horn so it faces forward rather than down.

Oops. Cratch Crush.

Oops! Novice driver's encounter with a tree. The cratch board took the brunt of the impact.

Thanks to the design of the board it sits on the edge of the well deck with locating pins but it's not bolted down. Instead of resisting the tree, the board was able to move up and back. The glass popped out as the board flexed but didn't break.

Rain All Day

The last leg of this trip was from Braunston to Gayton. On the way I received a call from Gayton Marina to let me know the scheduled lift-out and blacking has been delayed a couple of days because the boats currently being blacked are delayed a couple of days due to the weather. It's been raining all day so I'm not surprised. Moored at Gayton 16 miles, 4½ furlongs and 13 locks

A Night at the Marina

For a change, I moored Syncopation in Braunston Marina overnight because they have electric hookup available. Still raining. Here's a picture of one of the port holes with spider web-patterned condensation:

Moored at Braunston Marina. 8 miles, 2 furlongs and 6 locks

Napton Pill Box

I watched Dunkirk last night and saw thos pillbox today. We were going to fight the Germans across Britain from structures like this in 1940.

Moored at Napton top lock 12 miles, 6¾ furlongs of narrow canals; 7 narrow locks.

On the Way to Gayton

Rain nearly all day but luckily most of today's cruise was lock free so I was able to shelter under an umbrella. In the evening I fitted an engine hours counter to replace the one built into the tachometer. The original has gone the way of most of the ones in the Beta control panel. Damp causes the LCD display to fail. Mine is very occasionally visible, like a lunar eclipse. I've run the mechanical replacement on a 12v supply for a few months at home to get it to the 1800 hours the engine has run for. Now it's connected. I just need to make a hole of the correct size and mount it permanently next to the tacho. Moored above Napton top lock. 12 miles, 6¾ furlongs and 7 locks

New Alternator

The charge light for the domestic alternator came on couple of weeks ago. After some diagnostic work with the multimeter I found there was no charge from the alternator. Google found me an alternator repairer to n Milton Keynes. Diagnosis was stator and regulator fried by overheating. It was more cost effective to source a new unit than rebuild it, so here is the shiny new alternator in place:

Moored below Clayson bottom lock. 1 mile, 5¾ furlongs and 3 locks

Two Paths

Two Paths

Punting with Erik

Here's why we went to Oxford: The Oxford University Scout and Guide Group's 100th anniversary dinner. As former members we attended both the formal dinner at Somerville college on Saturday and the punting and picnic on Sunday. Cathy even got to hold the group mascot, Erik the panda, for a little while. Grateful thanks to the organisers.

Near Banbury

On our way to Oxford

Crusty

Needs a little vaseline I think:

Annual maintenance time. The terminals on the engine battery need a clean and dressing.