Date -03 Nov 09 Day - Tues Start - 0930 Napton Bridge Inn End - 1600 Hillmorton Tues 3 Nov Last night was a full moon, but we didn't see much of it as it soon turned very cloudy and shortly after going to bed it was raining heavily, it continued like this on and off all night but by 8 30 this morning it was bright sunshine and blue sky's. We set off at about 9 30 am the domestic battery voltage was sitting at a steady 22.5 volts so it will be a new set for Christmas. We hadn't been on the move long before the hat and coat was called for. We met several boats on the move, a majority of them being "Ownership" craft and I received the greeting "nice to put a face to a name" from one, but have no idea who he was. As we traversed the Puddle Banks I noticed that the wooden cruiser "Odessa" was gone, last time we passed she was sitting on the bottom, I hope they managed to float her. To the west was a full arched rainbow that chose to display its self between the showers. By the time we reached Braunston and turning left up the North Oxford it was tipping it down, we pulled over to fill with water just by Midland Chandlers, there are 4 taps hear to chose from so I took the one that was pointing downwards with a screwed end on it. The water pressure was quite good and it didn't take long to fill the tank. There was also a hire boat tied up here but they weren't taking water, just trying to keep out of it. They had tied an umbrella in a parasol base on the back deck to try to keep dry while boating. I could only see 3 things wrong with this, the back rope fouled the tiller, it was to high to go under the bridges and it was all about to blow away. Once full of water we left them to it. It wasn't long before the rain stopped and things brightened up again. We decided to stop for lunch at Willoughby and get our wet clothes off for a bit. Once refuelled Diana decided to steer for a bit and as we approached Barby Straight we spotted Draco moored on the towing path so we pulled along side and had bit of a chat with Mike before continuing on our way to Hillmorton locks. We met a couple of boats on the way so expected to find the locks in out favour, wrong, they were both empty and one had all the paddle gear wrapped in orange netting. I hadn't noticed it before , but one of each of the Hillmorton pair of locks has ground paddles at the top and the bottom of the lock. The norm is ground paddles at the top and gate paddles at the bottom, I assume these are the original locks and the second lock was added later. nb. Nackered Navvy was moored outside the Bistro but there was no sign of life as we passed. We moored for the night at 4 pm just beyond the water point on the rings. We took the dog for a walk and just round the corner we found nb Oakfield and nb, Piston Broke moored up so on out way back we gave them a knock and introduced ourselves. I also fitted the new Dutch bolt to the back door and changed the bedroom halogen lights to LED's. The new halogen LED replacements are much brighter than the old cluster ones are that we have in the lounge.
You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
