Canal boat trip with a difference!
Our (ringing) friends, Colin and Louise, invited us to go for a few days on their recently acquired canal boat - which they have named "Blueline". We jumped at the chance - and arranged to go for a 6-day trip starting on 7th October. The boat is moored at Wigram's Turn Marina near Napton on the Hill.
Mike and I drove up separately as he was going on to London at the end of the trip to be there while we had the front of the house painted, while Suki and I were returning to Devon.
The boat is beautiful - it is an ex-hire boat (the sort I look longingly at as they pass by when I am on Intrepid!) 😂😂 I haven't been in one like it before. We had a double bed, with drawers underneath for our things, plus a wardrobe, a large shelf above the bed and a couple of small ones, and a proper three pin socket. I took a fleece throw with me to protect the bedding etc from dog hair and muddy coats etc - and it looked very homely. Suki certainly loved it and settled happily on the bed every night and slept right through (exhausted) - much to my relief as I have often been up with her through the night on Intrepid when she gets spooked and can't get on our bunks.
There was central heating and hot water activated at the push of a button, and two shower rooms (with electric pump for pumping the water from the shower - such luxury).
The engine was a lot less noisy than Intrepid, and the boat didn't seem to shudder so much, and this made Suki a lot more relaxed about things. She was still spooked any time the boat bumped anything or made a noise, so tended to stay at the back with the driver most of the time - but could be persuaded to stay inside in the living room if required (such as when the weather was bad) and lie down.
We went on the Oxford Canal to just beyond Upper Heyford, and then came back - see route below. We had planned to turn round just past Upper Heyford Marina and then moor up and go to the pub for a meal but the turning hole turned out to be too short (65' and Blueline is 68') so we had to go on for about another hour and a half and two locks - then got stuck in one of them because the silt had built up behind the lock gate and we couldn't get it open far enough to get the boat out. By the time we had sorted that out it was way too late to get back to the pub so we cancelled our booking and ate on board.
Louise cooked beautiful meals every night using Hello Fresh recipes. They were delicious and I decided to try a few boxes myself when I got back to Devon. And of course there was copious amounts of red wine and beer.
We had mixed weather - rain, sun, warm and cold - but it didn't detract from our enjoyment too much. Louise's son, Ollie, came too so there were plenty of people to do the driving thank goodness. Mike found the front of the boat was a little higher than Intrepid which meant he couldn't see ahead as well when driving, but otherwise found it easier to drive - the rudder being more responsive and the tiller less shaky.
We were able to have a few handbell sessions when the gap between locks was long enough, and scored a couple of Quarter Peals with Louise - the first on the boat!
We got back to the Marina about midday on 12th, which was a relief to me as I had a long drive back to Devon and didn't want to do it in the dark.Photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ekskpb9F5Bg4Adxp7
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