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!
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