As June draws near, Bonnie needs to travel North.

This year, she’s going in for blacking. The last time I had this done was July 2022. Getting on for 3 years ago.

As I look at the hull, it looks kind of weedy…. The anodes, which prevent the hull from rusting are getting low, which is of more concern.

Hull blacking

Supposed to be every 2 years. I guess that’s a good timeframe.

Bonnie will be lifted out of the water, jetwashed and re-painted with bitumen paint.

They’ll put some more of these on….

It will take a week for which I won’t be allowed to stay on Bonnie due to insurance obligations.

Some boatyards do let you stay on your boat whilst it’s being blacked, although they may get you to sign an insurance disclaimer.

This time they won’t, so I will be leaving Bonnie and doing a bit of travelling around and about the country.

Weekend in Spiceball Park

Thought I’d spend Saturday and Sunday in the middle of Banbury, enjoy the bright lights.

Getting up there was more difficult

Blockage at Grant’s Lock

The first lock you reach between Twyford and Banbury is called ‘Grant’s Lock‘. It’s a deep lock. Maybe 20 ft deep. One of the features of Grant’s Lock is that it often gets debris stuck behind it’s rather tall gate.

As I bowled up on Saturday afternoon, it just so happened that a descending boat had become stuck in the lock, unable to pass due to the gate being unable to open properly.

Luckily, the CRT had been called, and by the time I got there, they were on-site. I managed to take a video of them, which is pretty boring and I decided not to bother with. So here’s a still:

That long rake almost hit the boater’s head when they first lowered it down! After the first try, the CRT staff realised it would be much simpler to climb down onto the boaters boat and rake it out standing in his deck area.

That’s what they did…. And it was gone in no time. Only a collection of twigs and detritus. Nothing exciting at all, which raises some questions about why few sticks and twigs would lead to a gate being stuck in the first place. That, I guess, you’d have to ask the CRT.

Eventually, I reached the bright lights of Banbury.

Went out for a few drinks around town on Saturday, almost struck gold! But not quite…

Most people move on from Banbury after a day…. Just one night, then gone. I stayed for 2, which is supposedly the limit during the season. Close to the supermarkets, which I visited to pick up the weekly shop, then moved on later on Monday morning.

Painting the gas locker

This is where I store my 13kg gas bottles.

For some reason, there always seems to be a build up of moisture in there which creates rust.

I’ve been watch it grow and get worse, taking no action… The rust was flaking off and falling from the walls onto the floor. Rust is a bit like mould, it spreads. Having flakes of it falling off was something I was aware of, but did nothing about, until now.

Vactan

Is a rust treatment which is water based.

I’ve used it to treat the water tank and have a supply of it.

Simple to apply, due to the fact it’s water based you don’t have too worry about slopping it around all over the place. After cleaning the loose rust away and removing it from the cabinet, I applied it liberally to the rusty areas.

It goes a very dark blue as it reacts with the rust. It creates a film, in effect denying the rust of any oxygen or moisture.

To finish the job off, the lid and rim are getting a lick of paint.

We had the gas locker welded a number of years back due to rust.

Hopefully, this coating of rust treatment will prevent it from rusting going into the future.

On to Cropredy

After stopping for my 2 days in Banbury, I carried on up to Cropredy.

Again, not a long stopover, just a couple of days.

Whilst I was there, there was this Oxfordshire Art Weeks. It’s an opportunity for local artists to exhibit and receive promotion along with other artists in the area as part of the project.

It runs from the 3rd until the 26th May featuring at different venues across that period.

As I arrived in Cropredy, the art weeks was exhibiting in the local church the St Mary the Virgin Church!

Free entry. A number of the artist were at hand to talk about their work.

I didn’t buy anything, as there isn’t much room on the boat at the moment, but it was well worth a look in.

I took a picture.

Cropredy was full of boaters, but like Banbury, 80% of them had moved on by the morning.

Again, I stopped for 2 days. Had a look round, then yesterday, moved on.

Deliberate act of vandalism

Just before I moved on toward Fenny Compton, we had this incident.

Someone had left the lock at Little Bourton’s paddles open. Obviously, not just one, but both sets. As you can see, most of the water is missing!

CRT’s engineers had to come out. The whole compliment, which is 8 staff, (which would have otherwise been doing other things), were allocated to stopping the boating traffic and replenishing this one pound which had been emptied.

CRT sent a message out on Tuesday that boat traffic had been stopped. On Wednesday, movement was still restricted as I tried to move North.

Due to levels being relatively low, running the water down was not an instant process. They needed from 9.30am on 20th May until 12.30 21st to re-fill.

One engineer said its possibly a months worth of water that’s gone down. In 2 days.

The summit is gravity fed from Clattercoat Reservoir. There’s no high tech way of replenishing, it’s simply a gravity fed system dependent on the levels in the reservoir.

Still, I’m sure the trapped boaters had a jolly old time, meeting each other, drinking beverages in the sun and sitting around on the bank for 24 hours.

One can only wonder what might make you create an episode like this. Maybe an ego thing. Maybe idiots. Maybe evil aliens. A combination of all 3, who can say?

Anyways, I’ve made it up to Fenny Compton.

I’m going to do some painting, and then later go down the pub.

Here’s where I’m moored up now.

Mobile signal is reasonable. There’s parking, a waterpoint and a pub. Shop in the village is about 3/4 mile walk.

Here’s an Oxford Sandy and Black pig in the field!

Until next time.