Go!!!!!

Well, after 10 days, we left Oxford this morning at 9 o’clock and, delightfully, our friend Debbie joined us for the first part of the voyage (like a pilot taking a ship out of harbour!!)

This is James and Debbie reversing ‘Chance’ into Isis Lock to get out onto the River Thames.  We had to reverse through the lock as we were facing the wrong way and there was nowhere to wind!

Although the yellow (stream decreasing) boards were showing, the river was still flowing quite fast and out first major obstacle was Osney Bridge.  Famous for being very low, the bridge was a bit of a pinch point in the river and we shot through at an “exciting” rate!

‘Chance’ sharing Iffley Lock with two other boats leaving Oxford.

One of the joys of the River Thames is that most riverside property owners are “well healed” – and some curious and/or expensive things can occasionally be seen.  What a great place to sit and be alone!

Debbie and Doug (the famous comedy duo!) enjoying the fresh air.  We were lucky again today as the weather was dry and mild.

We temporarily moored in Abingdon to say good bye to Debbie so that she could get the bus back to Oxford.  The river here was particularly fierce: firstly we had fun entering Abingdon Lock sideways! and, secondly, the speed of the water going through Abingdon Bridge was reminiscent of a log flume at Alton Towers.  James had to help with a Dutch Barge which had got itself wedged onto a tree stump as it was coming upstream through the bridge.  It was half an hour before it was finally freed and the bridge was safe for other river traffic.

The pretty St Helen’s Wharf at Abingdon.  You can see by the surface of the river how fast it was flowing at this point.

Out of Abingdon and we were into clear, open water with the flows only slightly more than normal.

Back to big flows – leaving Day’s Lock the weir is producing a heavy current as we enter the main flow again.

Calmer waters as we approach Shillingford and the riverside properties are becoming more and more impressive.

We moored up around 4 o’clock this evening at a wonderful position just short of Shillingford Bridge.

We’ve  had a great day.  Some “exciting” moments (especially trying to moor up, going with the flow, when you approach the bank at a speed more applicable to a jet ski!) and also some interesting moments.  We had a great time with Debbie for the first half of our day and we hope she had a good time too. 

Ready! Steady! …………..

Our daily river check this morning brought better news – the yellow (stream decreasing) boards are now out almost everywhere along the Thames from Oxford to Reading and, with a bit of luck, we’ll be able to leave tomorrow morning.
To make good use of today we walked up to Oxford Prison and climbed the “Hangman’s Hill” for the view.

This is Oxford Prison from Hangman’s Hill – now a “Malmaison” Hotel the prison still had 3 men to a cell as late as 1996.  The round tower just right of centre is the Debtors Prison, where those owning money were incarcerated until they paid up.  There were some long terms served in there we understand!

Doug on the top of the hill with the tower of Nuffield College in the background.

We popped into the Malmaison Hotel to have a look around.  The cells are now the bedrooms and it’s been very well converted – if a little dark in places.
Our next port of call was the Museum of Science History which is housed in the original Ashmolean Museum building.  Among other things a stunning collection of  historical scientific instruments are on display.


This blackboard has been preserved from the 2nd of three lectures made by Albert Einstein in Oxford on 16 May1931.  The first three lines establish an equation for the expansion of the universe and the lower four lines provide numerical values for the expansion, radius and age of the universe. (my goodness!)
Returning to the boat, we met up with our neighbour for the last few days - Rob Pointon is a professional artist.

This is his latest piece – the interior of the Divinity School in the Bodleian Library, which we visited ourselves only a few days ago.   Having been shown other pieces of his work we can certainly say he is very talented.
So – with a bit of luck we’ll be getting the anchor out and life jackets on tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed!

Our 2nd week!

Last evening we had a visit from friends Marcy and Phil, who travelled in to see us while we’re still “trapped” in Oxford.  We had a great meal at ‘Fire and Stone’ (the third time we’ve been there in the last week!)

Doug, James, Marcy and Phil.

Today was the start of our second week in Oxford and we did our usual thing of checking the river levels (it’s gone down half a brick!) but the flow is still too much.  The lock keeper wasn’t available when we got to Osney Lock (the river lock) but the yellow board had replaced the red one (stream decreasing).  However, there are still a lot of red boards between here and Reading, which is where we need to get.

We continued our walk along the river to Folly Bridge and back into the city centre.  Our walk up St Aldates took us past Tom Tower and the main entrance to Christchurch College.  Every evening at 9:05 the bell in the tower tolls 101 times as a curfew to represent the original 101 scholars of the college.  “Oxford time” is 5 minutes behind GMT hence the bells tolls at 9:05.

Further up St Aldates is the magnificent Town Hall.

The rest of the day was spent doing exciting things like Doug doing clothes washing and drying while James checked over the engine in readiness for the (hoped for) opportunity to get onto the river in the next few days.  After that it was a very slow walk with Oscar down to the canal lock – which our river companion guide calls Louse Lock but which the BW board, next to the lock, calls Isis Lock. So it’s officially Isis Lock.

Oxford Surprise (and a TV Aerial boost)

In addition to our normal blog – a quick answer to an often asked question as to how we always get a digital TV signal?  We have never been anywhere yet where we haven’t been able to receive a TV picture (much to the frustration of neighbouring boaters who can’t get a TV picture and we can!).  After Debby and Dave’s comment yesterday we thought we would publish the details of what we have.  It’s a Megaboost Aerial - we brought ours on ebay but they are a similar price on the link below at £29.95.  We can’t recommend it enough - its only a short aerial we have it on a 12” high magnetic pole on the roof, which we put up when moored. Sometimes it gets forgotten and left in the front well deck and still works on the floor!

SLx Megaboost Aerial Kit 1 Way

• Suitable for low, moderate and strong signal areas
• Digital & analogue TV signals
• Outdoor or loft installation
• Kit Contents: Log Periodic Aerial with 16dB amplifier gain power supply. Full Wall/Loft Fixing Kit, 10m Digital Coaxial Cable, 10x Cable Clips, 2x F Connectors & 2m Coaxial Lead

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p92687

We are still waiting in Oxford for the river conditions to moderate but we’re making the most of our time here going for walks around this lovely city each day.  Yesterday morning broke with a bit of fog but it soon cleared and we had a wonderfully sunny day.

‘Chance’ on the moorings – the autumn colours are beginning to look really good.  We’re having to brush off the nightly fall of leaves each morning!

Walking down to Osney Lock and the minor sluices are open and creating a spectacular scene.  The Environment Agency seem to be doing their best to get rid of the water!

Walking back into the city and just occasionally you find something that makes you think – wonder what happened here, eons ago, to cause this name?

We are still catching up with friends and family who live close by and last night James’ cousin Margaret and her two daughters, Linda and Leone, came to see us.  Our intention was to stop in Abingdon to see them once we got onto the River Thames, but the way things are at the moment we’ll want to get on and off the river as quickly as we can when the moment comes!  So the two girls kept the visit a secret from their mum, who wondered why she was being dragged out to Oxford on a dark Saturday evening!  That said, we had a lovely evening on ‘Chance’ and we then walked the short distance to Zizzi in George Street for a lovely meal. Thank you for coming to see us and giving us a wonderful evening guys.Leone, Margaret, Doug, James and Linda at Zizzi

Still waiting

Yesterday, after saying farewell to Jayne and Stephen on nb “Dolce” Doug caught the train down to Chichester to go home for the night and to pick up the post while James and Oscar stayed to look after “the fort”. Taking Oscar for a walk along the towpath……… 

………James took this shot of the spill weir which, before the torrential rain on Wed. night / Thurs. morning, was only a trickle!

Louse Lock, which allows us onto the River Thames, was showing the cautionary red board with strong stream warning.   We are moored at the end of the arm (shown to the left of the bridge) where we have a water point only5 meters away from us and, as we had the toilet tank pumped out very recently, we are ok for the moment to play the waiting game.

At midday today Doug arrived back from Chichester and this afternoon we did a bit of retail therapy: buying a new camera (so the pics should be better next blog!) and treated ourselves to some new clothes.  James left Doug to do more shopping while he went to look around Balliol College:

The Front Quadrangle of Balliol (who quote themselves as the “the oldest college and arguably the leading intellectual college in Oxford and therefore in the world”)   

The college Chapel – built in 1857.

Looking across the Garden Quadrangle towards the Chapel and the library buildings.

A view from the Masters Garden showing  some of the buildings of Balliol’s rival Trinity College.

Back to the Front Quadrangle and a view of the front tower and porters lodge with it’s entrance onto Broad Street.

For £2 it’s good value to be able to see inside, and wander round at will, in some of these beautiful institutions. Balliol having produced such names as Robert Browning, Aldous Huxley, Graham Green and Nevil Shute. Also three Prime Ministers: Herbert Asquith, Harold Macmillan and Ted Heath.

Another Farewell.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was  a very relaxing day. We walked, with Jayne and Stephen, to see what the river was doing and to have a chat with the lock keeper at Osney Lock about the river conditions.  At one o’clock they changed the red boards for yellow cautionary ones and allowed the intrepid (or desperate) boaters to take their chances!  We decided to stay put for the moment.

This is Carfax Tower which we climbed on Tuesday.  We took photos of the city views from the top of it but forgot to take one of the tower itself so, after visiting the lock keeper, we continued our walk along the river and into the city and took this photo.

Our main event yesterday was a planned visit by one of James’ very dear friends Debbie, who lives in Oxford and took time out of her very busy schedule to come and have lunch with us.  Very kindly she brought most of the lunch with her and so we enjoyed Champagne and a delicious cheese board.

Doug, Debbie and James aboard ‘Chance’. 

Later in the afternoon, as it was so sunny and warm, James re-blacked one of the rubbing strakes and repaired some of the blacking on the hull and the paintwork on the gunwales – minor damage caused by the many locks we’ve encountered over the last few weeks.

Last night we went aboard Dolce and had a very nice farewell meal made by Jayne, yet another great evening which we shall miss very much as tomorrow Jayne and Stephen head back to their winter mooring.

Over night we have had the most torrential rain, which continued for most of the night, and has now raised the water level in the canal by about 4 inches.  This does not bode well for river flows over the next few days and we’re  rather glad we stayed put yesterday as we might well have been experiencing some uncomfortable conditions on the river today.

We seem to have regularly said goodbye to various travelling companions this year and again, early this morning, we said a very sad farewell to Jayne and Stephen as they started their trip back up the Oxford Canal, leaving us to play the waiting game for the river to go down before we can continue our journey onwards.

We’ve  had the loveliest of travels with Jayne and Stephen over the last week and a bit and we’ll miss their company very much as we go our separate ways for now.

Jayne and Stephen on nb ‘Dolce far Niente’ setting off for the watery abyss of the Oxford Canal!

Tuesday in Oxford

We checked the river yesterday (Tuesday), the caution boards still being on red.  There were signs that the level is dropping.  One of our “neighbours” on the mooring decided they would chance it and headed off down the river like a cork out of a bottle!

This is our neighbour (nb ‘Bumble B’) – brave or what?  The other boat, coming up river, took an hour to get from Osney Lock to Louse Lock (next to our mooring)! Normally done in about 10 minutes tops.

James just had to take a picture of the engine of the boat coming up river in the last picture when it got to Louse Lock.  A Kelvin K1, about 1935 vintage – ticking over at 150 rpm! Superb sound.

We took a walk around the Jericho area which is close to where we’re moored. Now a very expensive area of Oxford to live in but originally built as a working class area.

The Italianate church of St. Barnabas in Jericho.

The huge Oxford University Press building in Jericho.

We took a climb up 13th century Carfax Tower (from the Latin quadri-furcus (four forked)).  It’s where the four major roads at the ancient heart of the city met.

The view North with the High Street to the right and the dome of the Radcliffe Camera (centre) and the spire of Brasenose College.

View to the north east showing Christchurch College and the cathedral church left of centre.

Just showing that we were there and that James overcame his fear of heights!

Our last port of call was the Bodleian Library where had a short tour of the oldest part – the Divinity Hall (with its’ fantastic ceiling) and the old library above it (no photographs allowed)

Our evening was well spent enjoying the company of Jayne, Stephen and their son Thomas, who has been taking advantage of them being in Oxford, and visiting for a few days.  We had drinks on board ‘Chance’ and then went to “Fire and Stone” again for a lovely meal.

Stephen, Doug,, Jayne, James and Thomas half way through the pizza.