Day 8

13 miles: 10 locks: 3 grazed knees (Matthew, Anthony & Charlotte), 7+ litres of Pimms

We woke up this morning to discover that we were blocking the canal, our mooring had loosened because the bank was softer than we thought and we had drifted! Another boat owner pulled us back,to allow the boats to pass and we secured ourselves again.

It has felt like we haven't travelled very far today, it's just been so congested along the Oxford Canal, and in parts where it was quieter it was rather shallow, so we had to slow down. We just sailed through the Oxfordshire countryside, which is peaceful. 

We completed the locks this afternoon although only half the number we planned to do, Anthony and Charlotte loved helping. Unfortunately Matthew hurt his knee climbing off the boat and Anthony and Charlotte fell over at the same time! We did take a photo of everyone's knees but I won't post it because you may be squeamish. 

Here are some photos we took tonight - one of me because Matthew commented there aren't many of me, and one of Matthew, Anthony and Charlotte.  Matthew's laughing because Anthony said 'stay as still as a dead cat' whileI took the photo. It was funny, but we've no idea why he said it!

We were hoping to be past Banbury tonight but the canal is so busy that we've made the decision to moor early (6pm) a few hours from Banbury. We've been told that one of the sluices on one lock isn't working which is making everything really slow. We didn't really want to moor in Banbury so made the decision that it was best to stay here tonight and then leave early tomorrow morning. It does mean that we are quite a bit further behind than we should be and we have no idea how long it'll take to get through Banbury tomorrow. We have to go to the supermarket though - we have runout of bread, milk, and some other food. We were going to go today but just haven't progressed as far as we hoped. Still, no bread or milk means we will have pancakes for breakfast (made with water) yum yum!

Here is the view from our window, now, it's so calm on the canal and a complete different way of life. .