Date - 4 Aug 2010 Day - Wednesday Start - 1100 End - 1430 His lordship, Magic played up again last night,he normally sleeps under the bed and apart from scratching, kicking and snoring we don't hear from him all night. However last night he got up and took himself off to the lounge to sleep,which was not a problem, but when he woke up he started barking so I went and had a firm word with him, some time later he started again so another firm word. over the course of the night he let out a few more barks but I ignored him until 7 am. when Diana went to see him, thought he must be hungry so gave him his breakfast. What did he do, took 1 sniff, came down the back cabin, under the bed and went to sleep, he still hadn't moved when we put the bed away. As well as getting up to the dog I also had to get up and close the side doors because it started raining which carried on until lunch time.
The pond was up a bit this morning, only a couple of inches but every time a boat passed we went against the bank and the leaned over. We set off in the pouring rain and headed to Banbury, on the way we managed to pick up a sleeping bag, luckily it caught the rudder and not the prop so I was able to remove it with the shaft, if I had have engaged reverse it would just have dragged it round the prop as well as the rudder and cutting that off wouldn't have been fun. First we stopped at Morrison's mainly for dog food and then on to the water point below the lock to top the tank up and dump the rubbish, including the sleeping bag. by the time we had finished the was a queue of 4 waiting for the lock, I think it was because the rain had stopped and boats started moving again. Moorings in Banbury were at a premium and the small boat in front of us had to ask a hire boat to move back a bit so they could get in. We made our way to Sovereign Cruisers to top up with diesel, we arrived about 1 30 so he was closed for lunch, however when he returned at 2 PM. he gave us the good news that his tanks were empty and he was waiting for another delivery. We decided to stay in Banbury overnight and have moored opposite his yard, we may move a bit later as the mill is quite noisy. Since we have been here we have already had a Napton Narrowboat run down the full length of our off side at one of the widest points of the canal. You will find our latest position and all our past travels on our blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/ -- Brian
