Friday 26th Sept. I arrived at Jannock early and so got a few jobs completed before meeting up with the rest of the crew. During the time I was aboard, there was a nasty car crash at the cross roads by the Boat Inn. One car ended up on its side almost down the canal bank. The 4wd pickup it had hit only had one rear corner impacted and so it must have been trying to cross the main road when it was clobbered by the car. Excitement over so I drove to Gayton to find Ian, Brian and Peter. Once back at Jannock and all of the food and luggage was aboard, fish and chips were collected from Southam and the Autumn 2008 Soddit Cruise officially began. We had two different Vale beers on board this trip. Four games of Soddit were played before retiring to bed at about 1am.
Saturday 27th Sept. Breakfast was cooked by Ian and we set off from Stockton at 9:15. Another boat arrived to share Calcutt locks with us and we were following two other boats up. As I was setting the middle lock, the water started wiering over the top of the gates. I looked ahead and saw that the boats in front had opened the top paddles of the top lock whilst the bottom paddles were still up. I shouted but was ignored and so started running (much to my crews surprise) up the towpath. Meanwhile a Calcutt boats employee had heard my hollering and run across, chastised them and the flooding ceased. Once through the flight we turned left and had the 'Piccadilly Circus' experience that appears to happen between Braunston and Napton at a weekend. At one bridge we slowed to let an approaching boat through and had to wait for a further two to pass before we could even attempt to get through, much to the disgust of the fourth boat in the procession (shouldn't leave so much gap then). We stopped in Braunston for lunch and a trip to the shop for milk. During our ascent of the Braunston flight we had the unusual experience of changing partners at one lock only to return to sharing with our original partner at the next and subsequent ones. Never done that before. We transited the tunnel with a selection of classical music (Jerusalem, Rule Britannia, 633 Sqn and the Dam Busters march) issuing at full volume from Jannock's Sony stereo whilst the crew made shadow puppets on the tunnel ceiling. Never done that before either. Finally moored for the night just before Norton Junction where Brian successfully caught a couple of very nice Perch (another first, pictures to follow) before the evening meal. We managed four games of Soddit before total exhaustion set in, possibly because the beer barrels were getting much lighter. Sunday 28th Sept. A lovely sunny morning found us sharing locks down the Buckby flight but following another two boats immediately ahead. We only met three boats coming the other way so had to turn four locks. Once through, an event celebrated by finishing the VPA (so we had to start rationing the Gravitas), Sunday papers were bought at the marina shop and we continued on through Weedon until stopping for lunch (and fishing) just before Stowhill bridge. The weather had held all morning but grey clouds were approaching fast. Once we were all fed the long uneventful trip through Nether Heyford and Bugbrooke found us all taking turns steering whilst personal possessions were packed and cleaning duties performed ready for disembarkation. An excellent weekend enhanced by the weather and the company. Graham www.jannock.org.uk [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
