Date - 30 7 09 Day - Thursday Start - 0900 End - 1330 Napton We set off at 9 am, its only just over a couple of hours from here to Napton on a good day, We soon caught up with a boat ahead of of us and slowed down to a little over tickover. The boat in front caught up with a hire boat and slowed down, we were now down to tickover. We finally reached the Marston Doles locks at 11 am. There were 9 boats ahead of us, by the time it was down to 4 in front there were 6 behind. We cleared the pair at 1 pm. When we got back to our mooring we found an Oxfordshire Narrowboat moored there. They had been there all night and this morning had left the boat and walked into Napton. We always have trouble getting back into our mooring as the silt builds up while we are away, trying to get inside another boat made it twice as difficult, plus the draw from Napton Top Lock slewed my stern across the cut. Eventually we got Harnser along side and the hire boat breasted outboard of us and set to packing away. The last trip to the car was made in the rain just as the couple from the hire boat were returning from the village, they were very apologetic and said the only saw the privet sign on the gate when they returned to the boat. Just as we were about to leave a passing boater who we had spent time with at locks over the past few days told us that there were 15 behind him when he came down.
Harnser is now on her moorings until next week, watch this space. You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
