Aylesbury Canal Society rocks!

No one in this direction ...

and no one in this direction. Very peaceful place to be. after lock 9.

Yesterday afternoon we made our way down to the Aylesbury Canal Society marina. It was not easy!

Firstly, David lost his windlass out of his beltloop when crossing the boat from one side of the bottom of the lock to the other - knocked it out on the tiller, so clearly the windlass was just resting in his beltloop at its elbow, not firmly implanted down to its holey bits. But did I remonstrate? No. Did I help drag the area with the magnet? Yes. Did we find the windlass? No. Do I care? No. David did say that he would bike back up and drag for it later, but I think G&Ts deservedly won out - read on ...

We had clearly done most of the easy part the day before when we moored up after lock 9, because from lock 13 the canal was reedy and only a boat width to the first bridge in the 2 mile pound. That was a pain but no big deal.

At least two boat widths available here and a permanent mooring on the offside.

And just one boat width here - a bit slow but it was OK

But then the weedy stuff started. It was not diabolical like the GU down near the junction with the Paddington Arm was when we were down there with Barry and Pauline a few years ago, where the amount of weed stalled the motor and Barry had to tow the boat with a rope for half a mile while we cleared tubs full of the stuff out of the weed hatch - there was no point in starting the engine again, as the prop got jammed within 15 seconds. Read about it here

On the Aylesbury Arm, as I said, it wasn't that bad. And that was a good thing too, as the reeds between the boat and towpath meant that rope-hauling the boat would not have been possible.

And at first it was rather minor, but there was enough shaking of the tiller meant that I cleared the weedhatch a couple of times.

Amazing how such a small amount can disrupt steering. This was the haul from 2 clearings.

However after lock 14 it got substantially worse - and just as I thought I was clear on the home straight!

David had got off the boat after the lock to go down and cross the canal and enter the marina on foot and open the lift bridge. Ha!! The best laid plans and all that ... He has explored previously unseen parts of Aylesbury in his attempts to access the marina. The first bridge apparently gave no access as there is also a stream to cross, so he walked down to the next lock: no access; so back he came and over the bridge directly in front of the marina and made his way on the streets to the marina entrance - which was locked ... 😅😆😉😊.

In the meantime, I had stopped the engine and removed the ignition key (a safety precaution - even though I was alone on the boat 😉), lifted the cover, removed the brace, lifted out the weedhatch cover, and removed blanket weed from both the prop and the rudder, replaced weedhatch, replaced and tightened brace.

Multiply that event by 3; and I ended up with a whole overflowing bucket-load of weed. Fortunately there was no other boat around and I could do weedhatch duty while the boat was coasting slowly to a halt (or not if I was quick enough). I didn't bother putting the cover down as it saved one job ...

The last stuff (the little topknot of weed) David added to the rest of the bucket after we moored up - the remainder, i.e. 85.7% of it, I collected in the last 500 yards before the marina entrance.

So I arrived at the entrance to the marina while David was still touring the streets, occasionally phoning me to report on progress or lack thereof. I have to say, I truly didn't care as I was just a bit pre-occupied ...

For a couple of hours we were moored outside the marina as a boat was occupying the space that had been set aside for us - the boat owners had been welcomed in with the thought that it was us, but no. They were due to leave at 5pm, but weren't back till nearly 7pm, after I'd had a couple of G&Ts at the communal BBQ.

But I decided to bring the boat in - maybe I should boat all the time under the G&T influence, as I got the boat in through the lift bridge, into the mooring amazingly competently - or maybe that's just what it looked like through G&T-hazed eyes! And there was no wind, and David pulled the stern around (come to think of it, maybe he should be infused with G&T before boating as he didn't argue or debate, just did exactly as I asked him ...)

OK scratch the G&T assisiatnce for me at least, but I am seriously considering whether I should pour gin in a certain person's fruit, yoghurt and muesli each morning. Thoughts, people?

Anyway, the Aylesbury Canal Society is lovely - very welcoming people and very convivial. They offer a week's free mooring as part of their articles of constitution, in part to encourage boaters to come down the arm and keep it open. Their facilities are sparkling clean and very attractive. And in spite of the weedy approach, it is worth coming down here.

Today we have been out to explore Aylesbury, in part to find the bus station (for David) and the railway station (for me).

We didn't see the statue of Ronnie Barker that Mick tells me is in the market square,  but we did see David Bowie.

And from the other side

Quite an attractive clock tower in Market Square

On the way back, we saw these ducks keeping cool in the overflow.

Not many boats moored in the basin, and we only saw a few moored on the visitor moorings on the way in to town. Is it my imagination, or is the 2nd boat from the right very low in the water?

This dog had dropped her ball in the water of the stream and valiantly got in after it. She didn't look fazed, but I gather she was in for a hosing down when she got home. She didn't rescue the ball, but the guy did and he wasn't throwing it for her again today, for some reason.

I spoke this afternoon to Brian, the president of the Aylesbury Canal Society. He doesn't have to open his weedhatch to get weed off his rudder or prop - he is so practised that as soon as he feels it on there he bursts reverse and flicks it off. I am going to try that - my problem is that I wait for a bit. So no more waiting - clearly impatience is the key!

Tomorrow I am going in to London to visit Rupert the osteopath and David is taking the opportunity to have some father/son bonding and is catching a train up to Manchester to spend the night with Tim. He'll be back on Tuesday and we may then set out off back up the arm. I reckon we may just get to where we moored on our first night, and that will be fine. Perhaps we will see the red kites again!