Weekend

Friday 3rd June 2011
Buckby top Lock to High House Wharf, Nether Heyford
4.5 Miles, 7 Locks (very heavy one's)

On Friday morning we moved the 100 yards to the water point and filled up, then it was off down the 7 Locks of the Buckby flight, we met boats coming up at 5 of them so that saved us closing the bottom gates which is always very welcome as these Locks, especially the bottom one which is particularly heavy, we stopped outside Whilton Marine so that I could pop back to the glass re-cycling bin outside the Chandlery, I noticed that the Red Diesel at Whilton was priced at 99p a litre (base price) that's the highest price we have seen and beats the previous record of 97p which was at Fradley Junction, we filled up at Rugby Boats at 82p per litre, when we arrived the staff were giving instructions to the crews of 3 hire boats, so we tied up opposite for half an hour and drank tea until the hire boats departed, we then shuffled across for our fuel. Once both tanks were filled we carried on for another half mile and moored opposite the Touring Caravan site close to bridge 28, there were 4 Caravans on the field which is always well looked after. It's a Caravan Club CL site which means they only have a maximum of 5 Caravans at one time and it's always a quiet place to moor.

Also today we witnessed a hire boat, crewed by Australians trying to fill the water tank, but we will save that for another blog. 

Saturday Morning I cycled to the shop in Nether Heyford village and filled my Rucksack with supplies, all the locals were very concerned by the news of a planning application for a Travellers site on the Bugbrooke road just outside the village.

Sunday we didn't do much, Jayne had the washing machine on doing the bedding and I watched the Moto GP on the box (only they are not box shaped anymore).

Monday I changed the oil in the Generator (Needs doing every 100 hrs) and the oil and filter in the main engine (every 250 hrs), whilst I had access to the front of the engine I tried the spare drive belts for the 2 Alternators that we had been carrying for 2 years, guess what?, they didn't fit! but better to find out now rather that when we are stuck. The fuel filter also got replaced and the water trap drained.

We have also added a non-boating blog to our "blog list" , The Big Glastonbury Adventure is our Daughters blog about her annual trip to Worthy Farm.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Stoke Bruerne.