On the move again

Finally I have pulled the pins and left the vicinity. Roundam Lock was smooth – and then in the distance I noticed Kidlington Green lock was full:Rick and Sophie were boating too but had managed to get hooked up on a huge log – I was pleased it was them in the lock and not me. A bit of re-floating, jigging and general poking liberated them and they set off taking the log out of the lock with them. Fortunately no damage was done.

Sophie struggled with the first life bridge – she wasn’t heavy enough to release the new mechanism BW have put on it, but fortunately Rick isn’t so light and left it open for us to glide through.

It didn’t take very long to get through Shuttleworth Lock. The red boards are up at Dukes Cut.

Allan struggled with the next, very rickety, lift bridge which was rather heavy and wobbles precariously. It took a while to undo the mechanism on the next one and then he had to sit on the balance beam. I thought the mechanisms are meant to hold the bridge down but I am beginning to wonder whether they are there to lock the bridges up to stop them being stolen.

When you undo them I thought the bridge was meant to open, but at the moment it doesn’t seem to work like that.  Single handers can use a Banbury Pole as Maffi did today.

Wolvercote Lock came along pretty quickly

And then finally we moored up:

It took just over 2 hours to get to our mooring so I think we must have flown a bit of it.  I was pleased to moor up in the light and early as it gave Allan an opportunity to put a new gadget in my engine panel. My buzzer alarm now goes off if the ignition OR the oil light come on rather than when I heat the heater plugs or stop the engine or every other opportunity possible. I love this simple solution and now I don’t have to have buzzer issues in the engine room. The buzzer buzzes when I need to pay attention to the engine. Happy Days.