Short stay in Cropredy

My birthday got off to a dull start weather-wise, and it started to rain heavily just as Naomi, Steve and Jess arrived. But no matter! We had a really good time together, catching up with news and exchanging stories, and much of it over a good Sunday lunch at the pub. It was a pity that Eddie wasn't able to be there too. “The kids” left in heavy rain, and Grace and I settled down to an evening of games, reading and TV.

Monday morning made it very clear that the rain was here to stay for a while, but I found a dry moment in which I could do a few checks on the boat. The stern bilge had not collected any more water, neither had the rear starboard bilge, which had on past occasion got quite wet for reasons we could not fathom, and this remains a mystery to us.

I discovered a couple of days ago that there is a slow leak of fuel from the top of the diesel hand pump. My attempts to stop this have failed so far, so today I will be contacting River Canal Rescue (the AA of the inland waterways), to see if I can get any help. It doesn't constitute a breakdown, since we can still move, but I'm not entirely happy with continuing very far while the diesel is leaking. Of course, if it were petrol it would be a total no-no!

Whatever the outcome of my contact with RCR, we'll be here for at least another 24 hours because of the rain. We have absolutely no need to travel, and no desire to get wet unnecessarily! When the rain does let up, we'll move on towards Banbury where, we are told, there are very good visitor moorings (“outside Marks & Spencer”).

I hope to find a dry hour while we are here in Cropredy for a stroll around the village, but for now...