A good deed for the day

It was another lovely sunny morning so we had breakfast out in the cratch and just read the papers. At 11.00am we decided to move, so we set off for the bottom of the Napton flight. We did pass a flock of 73 Canada geese. When we got there we stopped for water and had some lunch while we were waiting. Al had hurt her back while lifting the bed mattress and we managed to get some ibuprofen in the small Folly store. When Al's pain killers had kicked in we went up through the locks. When we got to lock nine the boat in front of us was belching out blue smoke and in the end broke down, so we had to rope it out the lock and moor up, but in a difficult position for other boats. We then came up and passed the boat and moored just above lock 11. We then walked back down to the distressed boat. We pulled it up to lock 11 where it was out the way on a busy flight. On starting the engine we had low oil pressure and on further investigation we had a leaking oil pipe. The engine turned out to be a Yanmar one cylinder diesel engine, a bit before Del's time. The couple on the boat (Steve & Denise) were gold members of the RCR (River and Canal Rescue) the RAC of the canals, and they had been called and were on their way. Del had spoken to them and told them the fault and to save time started to remove the pipe. It turned out to be leaking from the banjo and needed a new pipe. While we were waiting for RCR to turn up we were treated with coffee and cakes. When they arrived a new pipe had to be ordered which would be two to three days, so we left them after they tried to throw a bottle of wine at us. We then made our way up to Marston Doles where there was a cooking apple tree with loads of windfalls, a nice find. We then found a nice spot at the top where we settled down for the night. We've got a good phone and TV signal here so may stay here tomorrow.