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.

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

Crusty

Needs a little vaseline I think:

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

Repurposed Shower Pump

A small error in the winterisation process meant I dumped the contents of the fresh water tank into the cabin bilge over the course of a week. There's no bilge pump for the cabin bilge as it's supposed to stay dry. However, after a small investment in poly tubing  I was able to temporarily repurpose the shower pump to empty the spilled water from the bilge inspection hole.

pipe from the inspection hole

pipe to the bathroom

shower pump connected to temporary pipe

It was so successful I'm thinking of connecting the pipe permanently via a three way valve. Or maybe a spare shower pump.

Last Day to Aynho

We finished this year's summer expedition at Aynho.

Total distance is 9 miles, 2¾ furlongs and 5 locks
Moored at Aynho Bridge.

Kirtlington

Here is the sign at Thrupp telling passers by on the busy road adjacent that this is the Oxford canal. A pity the hedge has grown since it was put here.

We bought ice creams from Annie's Tea Room at Thrupp then passed on through Shipton Wier lock

There's room for about three boats where we stopped at Kirtlington quarry. Although the edge is rather broken concrete the setting is very quiet.

Total distance is 6 miles, 1¼ furlongs and 4 locks
Moored at Kirtlington quarry.

Kidlington

Much of the crew spent a lot of today dealing with chores on land (fetching GCSE exam results, delivering Hannah back home), so we moved only a short distance.

Total distance is 3 miles, 7½ furlongs and 3 locks
Moored at Kidlington

Leaving Letchlade

Having made it all this way we turned around this morning after buying supplies in town and headed downstream.

 Letchlade church in the morning

We stopped again for the night at Tadpole Bridge, for access to the car which we had left here one our way up the Thames.

Total distance is 10 miles and 5 locks.
Moored at Tadpole Bridge.

Tadpole Bridge

After a reasonably early start, we headed North on the Thames, passing Port Meadow as we left Oxford. We found a wild mooring after failing to find a suitable spot near the bridge, now tied to a tree by a steep river bank. We passed many beautifully kept Thames locks which i completely forgot to photograph.

Total distance is 20 miles, 7¼ furlongs and 7 locks.

Summer Holiday

We joined the boat at Oxford, near the Plough at Wolvercote, it having been moved there by my sister and her other half on their trip from Banbury. We motored down the Oxford canal, past the bottoms of the gardens of North Oxford and Jericho.

Once on the river we turned downstream, through Osney lock, encountering pirates in canoes, one of whom immediately capsized in front of us and narrowly avoided being crushed between Syncopation and another moored narrowboat as the wind carried us toward the bank.

Finding a mooring opposite Christ Church meadow we settled in for the night.

Total distance is 3 miles, 5¼ furlongs and 2 locks

Spotted on Indian Chief

The pigeon box on the Stoke Bruerne trip boat has a motto painted on it:















Look closer:























An Inn-keeper's motto if ever there was one.

Personalised Plate

Seen in Leighton Buzzard:
















This is a the bottom of a garden in Leighton Buzzard. Normally the Grand Junction Canal Company's mile posts show whole numbers of miles. On this particular stretch, the datum is Braunston.
Here is a "proper" milepost:



















Although this is not an original either, you can just see the plaque (horizontal) below the post that records the name of the donors whose generosity allowed it to be restored.

Out for the Week

This week we're out in convoy with friends who have hired from Gayton Marina. It's quite a novel experience for us to be travelling with another boat. It makes working the wide Grand Union locks easier with more crew. After the introductory talk at the marina we took on water at Gayton Junction and then turned left to make our way south on the Grand Union main line.

Moored at Bozenham Bridge.
Total distance is 5 miles, 5¼ flg and 7 locks.

Home Again

Back to Blisworth after a pleasant few hours spent at Cosgrove with the Buckingham Canal Society.
Last night was spent enjoying a fish and chip supper and some live music by the lock side. We tested a new Freesat satellite receiver in the evening, found it to be superior to the Sky receiver it replaces. I've been becoming less and less enamoured of the Sky service since they recalled all the Free Sky cards and replaced them. Ours never did work properly so we were unable to view any of the encrypted free channels. None of the Freesat channels are encrypted, so there really is no further purchase than the receiver.
We left relatively early in the day as I had decided to get Syncopation back to Blisworth by tea time. We passed throgh Stoke Bruerne in toiem for ice cream at the Boat Inn.

Moored at Mill Wharf, Blisworth.

Total distance is 9 miles, 5¾ flg and 8 locks

Lock Ransom

We've made our way down to Cosgrove for the Buckingham Canal Society's annual festival, or Lock Ransom.

For one weekend every year the members of the society take over Cosgrove lock. They operate the lock for everybody who passes through it in the hope of receiving donations for the society's coffers.

Moored below Cosgrove lock.

Total distance is 9 miles, 5¾ flg and 8 locks