Sunday 15 February 2015

Cast adrift.

 

IMG_6261We pulled pins from Fenny Compton at 08..00 and with a six and a half hour cruise in front of us we soon entered Fenny tunnel. Well at least it used to be a tunnel until the roof was taken off it..

IMG_6269Welcome to Cropredy . What came first the canal or the posh expensive houses opposite…...Sod off, If i ever moor here i will not move just to run my engine between 8am and 8pm. We see so much on our travels ,often its signs to say don't moor opposite or outside of this house . A lot of the time they make their signs look like they are official . Why do these people buy a house next to a canal in the first place .

IMG_6272Another boarded up old lock keepers cottage that is empty . The lack of any road nearby would make living in the house extremely difficult although it is in a beautiful setting.With a river on one side of it and the railway on the other, i cant see any way of getting a road to it . The sign on the house says it is owned by boaters ,but I'm not sure if that is true.

IMG_6286After a night just on the edge of Banbury near a very noisy factory that kept us awake all night ,we were lucky enough to pick up this mooring in the town. Its just North of the Tom Rolt bridge, and right next to Spiceball park and only a couple of hundred yards away from the main town and shopping centre in Banbury . Its nearly on the same mooring we had last year when we were here . With our Granddaughter arriving on Saturday for a week it is just the perfect location.

IMG_6281On Saturday morning I was awoken at 07.00 by a noise on the side of the boat. When i looked out of the window i didn't recognise what i was looking at . It was then that i suddenly realised we had been set adrift in the night and had drifted through the bridge and towards the town. A mad panic ensued with me shouting at asking Carolyn to get up and get dressed. We had been tied up with 3 ropes ,one on the Bow one on the Stern, and also the centre rope. The bow rope had been untied and thrown onto the bow while the other two ropes had been left on the mooring pins where we had been moored. The stupid thing is that as the middle and stern ropes had been on Armco pins there was no need for them to untie them as they could have just been lifted out of the Armco. Luckily no damage was done and we reversed back onto the mooring and moored up again.

In all our time aboard this is the first incident of any kind that has happened to us . We hear so many stories of what has happened to other boaters and always considered ourselves to be very lucky. The most bizarre thing of all is that our top of the range guard dog Hamish never heard a bloody thing . Normally the slightest noise outside and he barks like mad .He has failed miserably so there will be no treats for him today !

IMG_6293There is now no chance of the little Scroat/Scroats doing it again as i have now used a chain and padlock to secure Inca to the Armco. Also the padlock has a very loud siren built into it that goes off with the slightest movement of the chain or lock .I did wonder about connecting it up to the inverter so that 230 volts went through it which would give them a nice little shock if they tried it again.

Its not that often that we moor in large towns , but now i will always be using the chain and lock when we do. I think it was only done as a bit of a prank and we are not going to worry that much about it, although if we had been moored on a river it could have been a different story . At the end of the day no damage was done and nobody was hurt.      PS …   No chance of that happening when you live in a house.                                     

                                                                                                                    Happy Days

5 comments:

  1. yes that's was a good blog xxx

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  2. Hi,

    Personally don't think this was scrotes setting you adrift for a prank. If it was a prank they wouldn't have minded making a noise, if you wake up it's great fun watching you (from a safe distance) rush round in your PJs getting the boat back under control. We were untied once, ropes laid carefully back on board and no damage caused (the only other time we've been set adrift the ropes were just dropped in the water). We couldn't understand it and assumed that the house opposite liked their privacy (although it was an official visitor mooring there was only one house within site of it) and did it to discouraged boaters mooring there.

    The problem with using a padlock is if the boat needs to be moved quickly, especially if you're away from the boat at the time. The only occasion I can think this might happen is in the event of a fire (especially if it's the boat next to yours), very unlikely I know, but.....

    John

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  3. Hi John , I fully understand what you are saying about the padlock . If we are on the boat we have a key at the bow and stern and if we are away that's just the chance we will have to take . I'm not sure what an insurance company would say if anything did happen. It didn't help that our 8 year old granddaughter was Onboard at the time. Someone did say use more ropes and more knots to make it more difficult to untie. Still I suppose it's one of those things that happen when boating . Gary

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  4. Yep it does indeed happen to us all eventually. We were set adrift at Berkhamsted and like you, we heard nothing until we woke up at 5 am on a Sunday morning to find some toe rags had pulled our pins out and we were floating across the canal. Now we also use chains when we moor up over night in a dodgy or busy area. Instead of a padlock we use a D bolt which is easily screwed and unscrewed into place but most trouble makers will not be carrying a wrench with them as they look for easy targets.

    Love your blog and the pictures are wonderful!
    Jaqueline
    NB Valerie

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jaq , Good idea with the D bolt ,It makes more sense than a padlock I will pick one up as soon as I can.It was not a good experience at all .Still we will not let it put us off ....

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