Not A Lot Has Happened

I was reminded by a very dear friend that there had been a lack of blogging so for you Roger here is an update of what we have been doing.

Well since our son and Grandson left us last Thursday we have had a very lazy time in Banbury.
Sharon wanted her hair cut and coloured we found lots of hair salons but she would have to wait for 2 weeks to get it done we did eventually find one that will do it Thursday so thats also the reason we have remained in Banbury
We have explored the shops and enjoyed one or two of the pubs and very nice they are especially the Reindeer Inn real old pub with a good selection of beers and wine for the lady!!.

Reindeer Inn

A Fine Lady. Who Is Meant To Be A Distant Relation To
Sir Ranulph  Fiennes 

we will be moving on Friday back to Braunston (not in one day) . We will then spend a little time there and catch the bus to Daventry before retracing out steps back to Banbury as we hope that Justin, Sam and Rachel will be joining us for the christmas holiday,  well for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We have told them not to bring many presents as we won't have any where to store them. We really do hope they can make it we are really so excited about this.
Today we moved Tacet up through the Banbury lock to the winding hole to turn and back again to get water and get rid of rubbish then back to our mooring for the next 2 nights.

Time travelled Wednesday  1 Hr  Distance 1 Mile 1 Lock 

Total Distance Travelled 983. Miles 

207 Locks (Broad ) 462 single locks and 18 tunnel's, 10 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 10957 yards   
Total Time 529. hours  

We Are Loving It so Much

Our Son & Grandson Visit

Very sorry for lack of Blog posts, we have had our Son Justin and grandson Hudson visit us since last Sunday and as you can imagine we have had a fantastic time. However here is an update on what we have been upto.

Wednesday we left our mooring and moved on to Fenny Compton where we had arranged to Meet N/B Dusty which is a fuel and coal boat as we needed some diesel and coal. Fenny Compton is a nice mooring and we waited for Dusty to turn up, 77 lts of diesel and 6 bags of coal were loaded onboard Tacet.

Lots Of Berries Still on The Bushes

Thursday we left Fenny Compton the forecast was not very good but we new we needed to move on, however the cruise we had was wonderful we had beautiful sunshine with us all the way to Cropredy.

We filled with water and emptied the rubbish and cruised up to bridge for the night. The wind picked up at night and we thought that it would be bad on Friday.

Lovely Cruising day

Blue Skies 

This family Of Swans Have Adopted A Canada Goose

Swing Bridge And Bright Sky

Friday we woke to quite high winds but decided to set off to Banbury as the canal is quite shielded we had a very good cruise in to Banbury. We rounded the last corned in to Banbury and found that the spot we have moored at before twice was free so moored there again. 

Sunday morning we were very excited as Justin our eldest son and grandson Hudson are coming to see us for a few days. We are really excited to be seeing them. Thy are only staying with us until Thursday.

We had planned to do some things with Justin and Hudson as we had the use of the car.

So we visited Stratford upon Avon for the day and Hudson enjoyed looking for his christmas present.

We also went to a lovely play centre so Hudson and his dad with Grandad could play on the frames.

We had a good walk around Banbury and Hudson picked some more things he wanted Father christmas to bring him as he's been a very good boy this year.

On Wednesday it was Eddys Birthday so Hudson along with Nanny made a cake for Him.

Hudson Blowing Out Eddys Candles On Eddys cake

Birthday Boy

Nanny and Grandad spoilt Hudson whilst onboard Tacet and he went home with his dad with lots of toys he had picked. We have had a truly wonderful time with Justin and Hudson and were very sad when we had to say goodbye to them today. 

Tacet is very quiet with out them on board, 

Daddy & Hudson

Me & Justin

Granddad & Hudson

Hudson Feeding Swans

Priate Hudson

Time travelled Wednesday  3 Hrs Distance 6 Miles 

Time Travelled Thursday 4 Hrs Distance 6 Miles 9 Locks

Time Travelled Friday 2.5 Hrs  Distance 4 Miles 3 Locks

Total Distance Travelled 982. Miles 

207 Locks (Broad ) 460 single locks and 18 tunnel's, 10 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 10957 yards   
Total Time 528. hours  

We Are Loving It so Much

More Visitors & Back Towards Banbury

Saturday we woke to very heavy rain and we decided to stay put for the day. The rain persisted until 2.00 when it started to easy a bit. As we stayed put for the day we got on with a few jobs. The most important one being for us making the wine that we had brought from Barry from the home brew boat a while ago. It's a very easy quick and a cheap way to make wine, we have had red wine so we are making some white this time.

Boat In The Field And The Washing Is Out

Sunday we untied and moved off around 10.30. We are heading to Napton On The Hill as we have  Malcolm & Linda friends from suffolk visiting us.
We had a really steady cruise with most of the locks against us but that was fine as the weather although windy was nice and warm. We moored between the lock 8 and 9. The weather got very windy just after we moored but we needed a Sunday newspaper so we walked in to Napton to the shop and brought what we needed, on returning to Tacet it started to rain.

Monday just after 12.00 our friends arrived and had brought lunch also a bag of wood (take note sons). We had a really great time catching up with Them both and as always,  all to soon it was time to say our goodbyes. They have a long drive back to suffolk and the wind had really picked. It was  great to see you both.

Linda & Malcolm

The wind got really strong so we battened down the hatches for the evening.
Tuesday the wind had died down a bit so we filled with water and done the necessary and headed back up the locks as we are going back to Banbury as our oldest son may be visiting with our grandson we hope he can but it's not for certain yet.

This Flew Over 

We are moored at bridge 122 and the wind has eased a lot. Tomorrow we are heading to Fenny Compton

Our Mooring For Tonight

Time travelled Sunday  4 Hrs Distance 3.5 Miles 8 Locks

Time Travelled Tuesday 3.5 Hrs Distance 3.5 Miles 9 Locks

Total Distance Travelled 966. Miles 

207 Locks (Broad ) 460 single locks and 18 tunnel's, 10 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 10957 yards   
Total Time 518.5 hours  

We Are Loving It so Much

Back The Way We Came

We left Banbury on Wednesday morning. It was raining when we first woke but by 10.30 the rain had eased to a very fine drizzle. We headed to Cropredy for the evening as we have Shirley and Kevin NB Jenny Wren coming round for a meal.

They have a mooring in Cropredy Marina and are working in Banbury over Christmas. We had a lovely evening meal which sharon had prepared in the Wonderbag, it’s a great bit of kit and saves on our gas !!. The evening passed far too quickly and we said our goodbyes to Kevin and Shirley.

Shirley & Kevin

Thursday we left Cropredy and headed towards Fenny Compton. We had 8 locks to do and although we were behind another boat the locks fill and empty really fast so we still made good progress. The skies looked very dark and heavy and the weather forecast had said heavy rain in the afternoon so we thought we would be getting wet, however we moored at Fenny Compton just as the rain started so we remained nice and dry but it really hammered down for a couple of hours.

The skies Darken

Friday we headed off the wind was fairly strong and again the forecast was for rain but we had a dry cruise up to where we are moored at present. Whilst mooring the rain poured down for a while but it has now stopped . The forecast for Saturday morning is heavy rain but brighter after lunch. 

Time Travelled Wednesday 3 Hrs Distance 4 Miles 3 Locks

Time travelled Thursday  4 Hrs Distance 6 Miles 8 Locks

Time Travelled Friday 2.5 Hours 5 Miles

Total Distance Travelled 959. Miles 

207 Locks (Broad ) 443 single locks and 18 tunnel's, 10 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 10957 yards   
Total Time 511 hours  

We Are Loving It so Much

New Waters For us.

Sunday morning and there was alot of activity on the canal as Banbury was hosting a canoe competition i was great to see so many young people enjoying the water.

Canoes coming past

Monday morning we said goodbye to Banbury as we continuing along the Oxford canal not really sure where we are going to go. We will be returning to Banbury Thursday as we are planning to get  bus to Oxford on Friday and we should have one of Sharon’s dearest friends visit us on Monday in Banbury.

We filled with water at the service station then enjoyed a nice steady cruise. We saw King’s Sutton in the distance it has a really lovely church steeple (camera Battery Flat). We moored close to    Nell’s Bridge 187. We had a very relaxing time whist moored there for 2 days not very many boat’s moving. There is a very nice Farm shop here so we had a look around but only brought 2 bags of coal from them as we were getting a bit low.

Friday morning we left our mooring and headed back towards Banbury, There are a lot of leaf’s from trees in the canal and it was slow going at times to get through. We were standing on the back of Tacet enjoying the weather when we heard an almighty bang and we thought something major had happened in the engine bay but when I checked it was all ok it was then that I noticed our very nice Kingfisher Tiller pin was missing it must of unscrewed and feel onto the deck making the bang and then fell in the canal, we are very sad to have lost this as it was a very nice tiller pin.

We are moored in exactly the same place we had moored whilst in Banbury last week.

Saturday we got a bus to Oxford for the day. What a lovely city it is with so many great buildings to look at. We really enjoyed just walking around and enjoying the city. We had a very enjoyable lunch in a pub. All too soon we had to get the bus back as we didn’t want to leave Eddy alone to long.

Lovely Place

Really Nice Window

On Monday we had one of Sharon’s friends visit. Angela and Philip had been to Stratford upon Avon for the weekend and popped in to see us on their way back to Ipswich. We had a very enjoyable couple of hours catching up and it was all too soon to say our goodbyes to Angela and Philip.

Sharon & Angela

Angela & Philip

We are heading off to Cropredy Wednesday morning and have invited Kevin and Shirley from Jenny Wren around for a meal we first met them in Lymm along while ago and on Monday Sheila took us to Aldi in their car so we have got full cupboards again.

Time Travelled Monday 3 Hrs Distance 4 Miles 3 Locks

Time travelled Friday  3 Hrs Distance 4 Miles 3 Locks

Total Distance Travelled 944. Miles 

207 Locks (Broad ) 432 single locks and 18 tunnel's, 10 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 10957 yards   
Total Time 501.5 hours  

We Are Loving It so Much