We woke to blue skies this morning so we decided to leave early and head south. The weather didn't look good for the afternoon so we pressed on all the way to Crick.
Al got all the washing done and also made some rock cakes. It gave us a good chance to try out the new propeller and we were very impressed.
There was definitely more power as we were cruising at 200 rpm less and the tiller was more responsive. We were able to slow down enough for passing moored boats and it was easy getting into the lock at Welford. As we had more power, the stopping is far better and now stops in about a eighth of the length of Derwent6. But the best thing for us was we only knocked Derwent6 out of gear twice for leaves the whole journey where before we would have been doing it every couple of mile.
We even seem to have less wake now then before, so the first signs are all good.
Al came out with coffee and a fresh rock cake and Del was even able to steer with a cup of coffee in the hand holding the tiller, so no tiller wobble.
We turned into Crick marina for a pumpout which was a bit tricky in the wind but we managed to get on to the landing.
We then met up with the owners (sorry we've forgotten your names!) of another new Fernwood boat n.b Adagio and they showed us round their fantastic boat. Fernwood have done it again and made another couple very happy.......
We said our goodbyes and then moved on to the water point at Edward's, now The Moorings, and it was packed with meals for mothers, on Mothers Day. Al took the opportunity to post a letter and get some fire lighters as we were running low.
We then set off through the very wet Crick tunnel which has a habit of dropping a white deposit all over the roof and is hard to get off.
Our trick is to quickly leather the roof while the roof is still wet while going along. We then could see some black clouds approaching so moored up and as it turned out it was in front of n.b Moore2life. We walked up to see Ann and Chas for a chat and the heavens opened. We then had dinner and watched some telly in the evening. Del has a bad cough and wasn't feeling too good so it will be an early night tonight.
We went through Cropredy lock and made our way slowly through the next three locks to Banbury, the weather was just fantastic, with the sun on our faces. 
When we arrived at Banbury we were surprised at all the moorings available and yep you guessed it shopping was on the agenda. When we got back lunch was had while we people watched... 
As we were about to set off we were met by Bones on n.b. Bones, it was lovely to have a chat with her. She then walked up to the lock in Banbury and helped us through the gongoozler lock in the town, before we said our goodbyes.
We were then cruising in the afternoon sunshine and after one more lock we found a nice place to moor. Without hesitation out came the BBQ and we were stuffing Burgers, Bangers and Beers down our neck. 
Thomas then fancied some Geocaching and it was a good idea to walk off all that food. We found three within a mile of us and we all felt quite satisfied with ourselves.
In the evening, as the sun was setting and it started to get dark, we sat with wine and cheese and biscuits and were a bit naughty and set off a Chinese Lantern. 
We thought it was the best time of the year to do it. It did look lovely!!!!
We got to Claydon locks and all the locks were against us but we had plenty of time. 
By the time we had got to Varney's lock we were third in a queue and passed Keith and Ann on n.b. Oakfield heading north. 
We were lucky enough to get a nice mooring with a lovely garden ready made for us. 
We picked up a few bits at the shop and chilled in the cratch till our visitors arrived. Len (Del's dad) & Terry & nephew Thomas got to us at about 5.00pm and after drinks we walked down to the Brasenose pub for something to eat. 
Later in the evening one of our favourite guitarists, Derrin Nauendorf was playing and they let Thomas stay in the pub and watch.
We made our way to Napton and Al toasted some Hot Cross buns to have with coffee as we were going along. 
With the windmill gleaming down on us as we stopped to top up with water. 
As this appears to be the M25 of the water system, it was reasonably quite. We only had one boat pass us on the water point and no queues.
We were slapping on the suntan lotion for the first time this year and soaking it all up. 
After three hours we were lucky enough to grab a mooring right outside The Whalf Inn pub. We walking in and booked a table for the evening as they had a band, the Ladbroke Rockers, on at 9.00pm.
Still bed was only thirty feet just outside the pub door....
We took the turn at Norton and went through Braunston tunnel and we were lucky enough not to meet anyone in there. 
We did meet some novices who wanted some help down the locks, which speeded things up a bit. 
We then picked up the Oxford canal and things got very calm as we cruised in the late evening sun, with the yellow of the rape fields on either side of us. 
We got to one of our favorite mooring spots along this stretch and Al started dinner. 
We sat out in the cratch with the warm still air, catching up on the last couple of days apart.
We said our goodbyes and set off for the locks. We were lucky enough to see the last boat coming up the flight of seven, five of them being a staircase (where one lock goes straight into another). This enabled us to go straight down and we were at the bottom in under a hour. We were followed by this fella who must have wanted to go down the flight with us, we had to be careful not to squash him.
We made our way along to Norton Junction where it was trying to rain so we moored up. 
We had just set up the aerial before it poured down. 
Ham egg and chips all round were in order in the nearby pub and then it was back to Derwent6 for coffee's and tea's. We ended up spending the whole afternoon in the cratch chatting about old times.
We then had a easy afternoon and in the evening we had Pat and Keith round for a Mother's Day dinner. We had a lovely evening, drinking three bottles of wine, they left at around midnight.....