Head north young man!

Well today we gave up and decided to terminate the initial plans. With flood warnings still in place and some parts of the Thames not even expected to peak until 24-48 hrs time and with more heavy rain forecast for later this week and into next, we turned just below Banbury thanks to the fact that Banbury lock itself was, at last, opened and are now heading north. Not quite sure exactly where yet but towards Tixell, Stoke, Harecastle and Macclesfield to start with - any suggestions gratefully recieved; perhaps I could run a phone poll as to where you would like to see me go, but then, in light of the experiences of the BBC maybe that's not such a great idea!

We had a good run up today and are currently moored just north of Fenny Compton. We saw the Micron touring theatre company moored outside the pub in Fenny and all set up for a show this evening but there were no moorings available so we pushed on through - more's the pity!

The tiller bearing has once again worked loose so this time I took the mole grips to it! I will see if it now holds up a little longer! An enjoyable bar-b-q this evening ended the day and is also the reason for this very late enty tonight. I must compliment Mike from Snecklifter on the excellent picture he took of myself and my brother in Banbury and which can be seen on his site. I have posted a picture this evening, (below,) of the sandbags piled up outside of waterside property doors in Banbury taken this morning. The comment of the week must come from a passing boater who said he really didn't believe all the fuss about the 'so called' floods. He continued by saying, "after all - I saw a duck this morning and the water only came half way up him!"

I saw this sign on the edges of Banbury today and it tickled me! Having helped a somewhat inebriated gentleman through a lock in a boat covered in dubious looking foliage and proudly showing off his 'patrol notice' issued by a BW officer; I could well imagine the kind of 'boater' who might write such a message!

My final offering tonight is this boat I passed, also just above Banbury. I noticed it had a 'for sale' sign on the window but couldn't quite read the small print at the bottom of the notice. I wondered whether it detailed any indication of the inventory included in the purchase of the craft - like perhaps the inclusion of a bow thruster!!