We only have a short journey today, down towards Napton Junction, through the three locks and then we would be at Calcutt. However they are not expecting the boat in the boat yard until Monday to start work on the engine so we have decided to go onto Ventnor Marina, which is another Aquavista marina and stay there for the weekend. We have moored here with Maya in 2011 so we know it is a nice marina. We rang ahead to get a mooring at Ventnor so we headed out on the canal at around 10am.
It was very windy today so cruising was not easy and then it started to rain so not a good day to be on the canal but as it is such a short journey we plodded on.
We took the turn at Napton (this takes you onto the Grand Union Canal and off the Oxford) and then headed for the locks, a boat had just come out of Wigrams Turn Marina so we teamed up with them to go through the locks as they are double locks so two boats can go in at the same time. After chatting to the man on the other boat we found out that him and his wife have a You Tube channel (Locks and Landscapes) so we will have a look at that this week. He had two lovely dogs on the boat but one kept jumping off the boat onto the locks which gave us all bit of a fright. With two of us working the locks we made good time. At lock three I met a lovely Welsh couple and after chatting they told me that they had bought their dog from Haverfordwest my home town. It is a very small world.
We headed into Ventnor at around 11am and eventually moored up after a few attempts as the wind was so strong.
We had planned to be here until Monday but Calcutt boats confirmed that they would not be ready to work on our boat until the 19th August so we are going to stay here until a week Friday before heading off on the camper van.
As John was sorting out the boat after mooring, a very unfriendly swan came to visit and demanding food. HIssing at us both quite aggressively. We fed her anyway and then her three very large cygnets decided to join her.
Add comment
Comments