We awoke early this morning, probably because Jill was about to be deposited on the deck as we had developed a rather alarming list. Peering out of the window it became clear what the problem was.
The pound was a morceau short of water and we were well and truly stemmed. While Jill 'phoned the emergency number for C&RT I nipped down to the lock to see what the problem was. It soon became obvious that someone had been playing silly games. All four paddles had been lifted a couple of inches. Being me I then had to leg it back to the boat as I had left the windlass onboard. Having shut the paddles I had time to enquire of my dear lady what was happening with C&RT. They were, she said, sending out a posse of there finest and it was just over an hour before they turned up. Not bad going for 0700 on a Sunday morning.
In the meantime I had managed, by dint of much pushing, shoving, huffing and puffing
and a touch of the splits, to get us off the mud and floating.
The C&RT chap explained that, as it is a long pound and it was well down, it would take several hours to bring it up but he then kindly checked the depth over the cill and said it was ok for us to transit the lock, bless him.
This was the by-wash, he said it was handy because it gave him chance.to check the brickwork.
As we came through Spiceball Park at Banbury we spotted Iain And Allison. Having given up the coal on Gosty Hill they had been spending some time on their pair, butty Ditton is still very much a w.i.p. but he has rebuilt the back cabin and says it won't be too long before she is all painted and shiny.
Having moored in town we had a wander around Castle Quays shopping centre (Ugh!). We are getting somewhat short of crockery, china ware has a tough life onboard, and although we found some we really liked they didn't have enough to meet our needs, looks like chipped plates for a while longer.
Watch this space.............
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