FreeSpirit : One close shave, One near miss and meeting another blogger

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

One close shave, One near miss and meeting another blogger

We were very lucky. No visitation by those bullocks, although a wide beam moored further up had their hand rail chewed and the picture on the cabin side marked. They were understandably annoyed especially as the farmer had taken the £5 mooring fee. I really think the land owner should be responsible in keeping the boats out of harms way especially as one pays to moor there. Signs should be clearly marked saying one should moor at their own risk. After all, how much would it cost to put a fence around. The amount he has charged boaters over the years, he must have made more then enough to pay for it.

Wide beam at Radcot lock

Two only locks today without a lock keeper was at Grafton and Shifford locks and at Grafton we had the help of the lady and gent from the wide beam. Having left the mooring on the meadow a good 15 minutes before us, we were surprised to catch them up. Apparently they don't travel very fast. With them stopping to take on water we managed to get past.

Grafton Lock

Had a near miss when another wide beam appeared round one of the sharp turns. Talk about making the engine work, smoke was pouring from the engine as Ian threw FS into reverse .

Eeeek

Then it was Heathers turn to have her panic moment when she met a narrowboat on a bend. I tell you, one has to keep their wits about them on this section of river!

Canoeist were also a problem and meeting on the bends doesn't do ones heart rate any good especially when they don't know which side of the river they are supposed to be on.

We made it to Bablock Hythe by around 4ish, not a good time to try and find a mooring. There was a space near the Ferryman near to two boats already breasted up. So we winded and Dave went in first. Help was at hand to pull Vixen into the side and before long we had secured FS next to Vixen. Chatting away to the other boaters we found out that one of them was Festina Lente also a blogger. Small world isn't it. We were also told that Morris dancers will be performing in the pub tonight so we may just have to go and support them.