Date - 23-26 July Day - Weekend Start - Napton End -Fenny Compton We arrived at the boat on Friday afternoon and moved the boat at least a 100 yards to the other side of the cut where BW have installed some nice new piling, we even winded to face south ready for when we eventually set off. The reason for moving across the cut is that Magic can no longer cross the lock gate and I don't intend to carry him. You may think doing only 100 yards over a full weekend is easy going, but the weekend was not spend lounging around.
Saturday morning and we headed off in the car to Bourn End where Julian the Commodore of the Cutweb Internet Boat Club was holding his annual BBQ. After putting the world to rights over a few bottles of beer and some well cooked food we retired to the warmth of a nice wood fire inside the drum of an old washing machine. To save driving all the way back to Napton Diana and I spent the night at The Water Mill, Bourn End. Sunday mooring after breakfast saw us on the road again heading down to my son's clay shooting ground,The Cotswold Clay Club where we spent the remainder of the day. On our return to the boat we had gained a stowaway in the form of my eldest grandson who will be 5 next month and has been dying to spend the night on the boat. Monday morning and the first task was a trip to Budgens to stock up with some food for the next few days, it was raining so we also had to buy No 1 Grandson a waterproof jacket.Back to the boat saying hello to all the animals at the farm on the way and we were ready for the off, him in his new jacket and brightly coloured lifejacket that I picked up at a boat jumble a few years back. We met boats at both the Marston Doles locks where No 1 assisted Diana with the locks. We needed water before we went any further so we stopped at the tap just above the locks, unfortunately a hire boat also had the same idea and was there just ahead of us, it must have been 45 minutes before his tank was full and we could make a start, once we had three quarters of a tank full we called it a day and moved on to Fenny Compton where we moored for the night a little after 4-30 pm. Claire arrived to pick up No 1 Grandson a little after 6 pm bringing No 2 with her, so we all had a meal in The Wharf Inn before she headed off home. As luck would have it Mikron Theatre where performing in the Wharf garden so we spent the rest of the evening being entertained by them. Tomorrow night they are playing at The Boat, Stockton, followed by Hatton on Thursday night. -- Brian
