The letter dropped through the letterbox onto the front matt, I did not recognise the postmark at first so with the usually scepticism of more junk mail I ripped the top off and withdrew the contents. What’s this then? A letter from Calcutt boats offering a mooring in their new marina?

 

This was really spooky as a week earlier I had rung Calcutt to enquire where we stood as we had not replied to an earlier note inviting us to indicate our preference for new pier in the marina. We had not replied, as we were at the time content with the linear mooring on the K&A. That was until the local District Council had served notice on BW that planning permission was required and that a public enquiry was to ensue and so threatened the moorings (BW subsequently won).  Its strange how things fall into place at times. However this put us in the predicament of moving the boat up to the GUC before the winter stoppages came into force.  So guess what we were going to do in half term 23-27 Oct 06 ? Yep you guessed it, long cruising days.

 

Now we have done this run before, both ways! Having moved our last boat down from Calcutt then back up where we sold it! Then the MC shell from Calcutt down to the K&A to finish the fit out and now that Noel’s Ark was complete we were going back up again! The trip would be a total of 134 miles, 112 locks 33 moveable bridges (16 of which are generally left open) and I tunnel, on the K&A, Thames, Oxford and Grand Union. This would take 7 days hopefully!

 

First thing to do was book my annual leave from the fire and rescue service and check for stoppages. Luckily as this was the last school holiday the system was not affected by stoppages so we were on!

 

So, late afternoon of the 20th Oct Carolyn dropped me off to move the boat from Lady’s Bridge down to Pewsey wharf to load up the supplies. We had fuelled and watered the previous weekend at Honey Street.  Carolyn would leave me there that night and return the following morning with Reg, the dog. We stowed everything away and I settled down for the night, I must admit I was really looking forward to the cruise this would be our first trip since finishing the fit out! The next morning Carolyn was brought back by her parents and had luckily, she remembered to bring the frozen food! So after final stowage we were off.

The first days cruising on the Saturday saw good progress the weather was changeable, sunshine one moment and foul weather gear the next, Carolyn worked the locks and yours truly helmed. There was little to really write about on the first day, other than the weather, nothing of note occurred. There weren’t that many boats moving, one boat we passed on the way to Bruces tunnel, the guy at the helm did shout when passing; “Hi Noel” I didn’t know him from Adam he had looked at the name and assumed rightly that I was the Noel that the boat was named after, pretty observant really!  Having stopped for lunch at the summit we commenced the long climb down to the Thames as we locked down to the Crofton pump house the heavens opened and the cats and dogs began to fall! We were on a mission so nothing was going to stop us. So complete with hi viz foul weather gear we pressed on.  That night we moored up at Great Bedwyn and lit the squirrel and settled down to a warm and relaxed night. We had a pretty good nights sleep woken occasionally by rain beating down on the roof. I started to regret naming the boat Noel’s Ark as it appeared and transpired that the Sunday was going to be a really foul day.  We rose at 0645 to an early tea and breakfast ready to be underway by 0800 at the latest, this would enable us to have a full days cruising up to 1800 hrs in the evening.  It rained all day! Other than the pouring rain again little transpired. We stopped at Hungerford for lunch and met another couple that had also purchased a MC hull from Lymm. During this long wet day I had not really considered the rain and the impact it may have on our journey. I assumed wrongly, as it would transpire, that as we had had a long dry summer that the rain would be largely soaked up by the earth into the water table.    At the end of the day we moored just outside Newbury settled to a hearty meal and glass of wine and a warm squirrel! (fire that is).

Concludes in members section with a slide show!