Crew - Graham, Brian, Ian & Dick
Soddit (Spring 2002) Cruise

(Ian) Lunch 1PM      -       Le gourmet Graham
                                   -      Il ne pleut pas
                                   -      can't get to grip with a boat without rain.
                                   -      drinking commenced 11:16
                                   -      Urinating commenced 13:02 (Brian)

Cropredy Old Mill to Haddons Bridge winding point and back to Banbury. Uneventful trip out in nice, dry, but not warm weather. On the way back after turning, we met 2 other ex-black prince boats. The first was in service with Oxfordshire Narrowboats and the second (ex Brecon?) was renamed and on route to its new home mooring at Gibraltar, further south. Both 1997 and sported lists to starboard. Visited the Bell Inn at Banbury, an M&B house that had a very good selection of beers. Ian prepared stir fried chicken & rice for dinner. We had one game of Soddit (which Dick likened to watching paint dry) and went to bed.

Crew - Graham, Brian, Ian & Dick

Breakfast (mega-fryup) by Dick was consumed with relish, pickle, chilli sauce and anything else we could find (including Kaolin & Morphine).
(Brian) Back to Cropredy. First beer of the day at 11:15. Tried to squash 2 ducks in a lock but failed miserably. Gourmet lunch of Spag Bol. Very good even if I say so myself (I cooked it) Ian has been given the task of working out the mileage but he says he "can't cope with (nicholsons) maps with (printed) pins in"

Crew - Brenda & Graham
joined later by Terry, Iris, Sue, Ron, Pat, Don, Simon & Matt.

Q.) What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?         A.) Cliff      
Q.) What do you call a woman with a duck on her head?       A.) Brenda.

Arrived Cropredy mid morning. We started the day with one of the local ducks landing on Brenda's head whilst she was stood on the stern of the boat watching me pull out the big mooring stakes from our permanent mooring. Unfortunately, she had the camera in her hand and when I tried to get it from her, the duck flew off. Matt has since drawn a cartoon of the event which is shown alongside. We moved up to the wharf for water and then retired to 48hr mooring opposite for a couple of hours. When the canoeing club had ceased it's activities, we moved up to moor beside Bridge stores ready for our dinner party guests to arrive. Brenda held a 'murder mystery' dinner party for 6 persons on board during Friday evening. Simon and Matt arrived about 9 PM and we went to do the car shuffle to Hatton Station.

(Iris) Hi Y'all - hilarious Murder/Mystery dinner on board Mississippi boat at Cropredy. Excellent food - Miss Scarlet excelled herself yet again. The barman got familiar with the towpath! American accents - where were they?

(Don) Hilarious trip on a narrow paddle steamer from Norwich? to New Orleans? via Somerset and a bit of Scotland! The Captain did it!

(Sue) This sweet li'l ol thing remained 'chased!'

(Brenda) Today we were gifted with a June afternoon. The weather was warm and sunny, wonderful. Graham and I moved Jannock from Old Mill to the Bridge Stores, only moving into final position when the children from the canoe club went home. It's lovely to see the kids having so much fun. What's that about ducks, I hear you say? I was stood standing and a duck landed on my head, it's mate was thinking about perching on my outstretched arm. Wierd. At 6:30 PM, Iris, Terry, Sue, Ron, Pat and Don joined us for a Mississippi murder aboard the Magnolia Queen. Large amounts of hilarity ensued. It became apparent that the assembled company didn't do accents. We all became concerned when Simon texted us a message with thoughts about buglers (sic) whilst we were away cruising. He commented later that his 'predictive text dictionary' didn't do burglars. Let's hope that this is a good start to the year. The new boiler bodes well ......

Crew - Matt, Simon, Brenda & Graham

Engine wouldn't start this morning. Ignition switch had been left on all night. That explains why we cruised for 22 hours yesterday. Jumped the starter battery from the cabin bank. Left Cropredy at10:15 and headed North. Relatively uneventful trip up onto summit and were blessed with good weather. An increase in wind speed started to make life difficult towards the Marston Doles end where we stopped for water. A working boat was coming up through the next lock towing an unpowered steel cruiser. The steerer of said cruiser had little directional control and Jannock took a hefty clout to the bows. Arrived at Napton Adkins lock and disturbed Mike's fitting of Draco's lounge cupboard when I handed in my (now fated) rally application form. Passed through Napton bottom lock at 17:30 and moored after Napton bridge, opposite the old brickyard. This was a nice peaceful overnight mooring position even though it left a lot to desired in the 'bootiful view' department.
(Simon) Hello! I'm back (from Uni) to crew again ..... Awash in sunshine, we traversed all around that mast and windmill before stopping for dinner.

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Saturday Beeky Crew - Andrew, Sheila and Jim
Sunday Keens Crew - Graham, Brenda, Simon and Matthew.

Gary (Brenda's brother) decided to tie the matrimonial knot today, Emma became Auntie Emma officially! So, Cap'n Beeky, Lady Beeky and cabin boy Jim represented the 'Jannocks' at the CutWeb Rally. They escaped without filling in the ships log, so an entry by e-mail was demanded, and eventually recieved.

Napton Rally 'Tis a fact, as Graham relates . . . .
> P.S. The Capn Beeky crew still owe us an entry for the Saturday of the Cutweb gathering!!!!!

But the reason, dear Jannocks, is that on that day in September we spent only about an hour on Jannock, awake that is.
An early start, 08:00 without any breakfast as there was a multi stage plan to get through, away from Napton.

1) Breakfast at the BP truckstop on the A5 south of Lutterworth. Unfortunately aborted, due to being beaten by a short head by a minibus party of fishermen from Yorkshire who monopolised the understaffed kitchen. We got our money back after about 30 minutes.
2) Breakfast eventually taken at a caravan stop further up the A5 near Hinckley.
3) Glascote - first ever viewing of Uncle Mort by Mrs B and Jim. Special appointment with SMH himself. All very exciting.
4) On to Kings Bromley Marina for a quick recce. All happy with mooring reserved near the island and the wooden "Temple of Gloom" under construction.
5) Arranged rendezvous with Will & Jane Chapman at Alrewas. Bought plenty of meat from the highly recommended butcher which we can highly recommend. Sausages, chops and fillet steak for selves and Terry Streeter to consume back at the Napton BBQ.
6) Visited one of the Alrewas pubs and then off to Wychnor to inspect the moorings and Quidditch. All very impressive.
7) Dash back to Napton for more beer and to belatedly join the BBQ. Terry, starving, had already been taken pity upon and fed morsels by other Cutwebbers.
8) Minor respite and 1/2 hour on Jannock, including testing of the "illuminations" kindly assembled by Graham.
9) Booze and music by Meet on the Ledge. Very enjoyable and entertaining evening.
10) Snoozed.

And that is really all we had time for. Sorry but a boaty type log just wouldn't materialise.
Capt B

The Beekys handed over to the Jannocks, who survived the wedding and those posh suits. (I think that my husband and sons looked absolutely splendid in morning suits. A very proud wife and mum.)
A very sociable day, with a penguin as star turn at the raffle...again...courtesy Beekies. There was some malicious bidding (especially with regard to folding bicycles!) going on for sure, but all in a good cause. Simon enjoyed iceboat Laplander and is going back to his physics course more knowledgable about steam technology. With Terry S. we managed a reasonable 4th in the evening quiz, but knew so little about sport and leisure that we dropped points there; what do we know about footie, golf or rugby? We instigated conkers though! Big surprise when Graham's ticket won 1st prize in the raffle, so we get to return to Napton for a slap-up at The Crown. (The surprise was truly earth-shattering; an earthquake centered on Dudley measured 4.9 on the Richter scale at 1am.)

Post-script: we returned to The Crown some weeks later, and had the biggest Sunday lunch ever. There was no room on the plates for gravy, 5 portions veg in one course and I left 9 spuds AFTER I'd eaten all I could. A lovely meal!

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Matthew with guests, Clive and Stella.

Clive and Stella take a week-end Jannock Educational Trust course; 'Flowers on the cut, and 101 things to do with a blackberry.'

(Clive) Probably not a stardate, could be the captain's log, who knows.
First trip in a proper narrow-boat, most enjoyable. Was allowed to wiggle the stick thing at the blunt end, which makes it change direction - eventually - also had a go with the windey handle thing on those clever door things across the water- they seem to be there to stop waterfalls happening - who knows? Saw a couple of herons, a bird of prey and lots of friendly people - only 2 cars all day which was splendid.
Alcohol consumed - -there certainly was.
Catering, courtesy of Brenda, was excellent, some help from James Herriott was denied. All in all a splendid day.

( Brenda...He means Aynsley Harriott I hope, and we came across nb Arun and that nice Mr S. just in time to moor up for tea, chats and the first blackberrying lesson.)

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Matthew with guests, Clive and Stella.

A fairly straightforward run from Claydon to Cropredy. Clive steered Jannock through the first 3 locks. The day started overcast & cold but soon cleared and became warmer. Filled and emptied at the wharf and then moved down to the mooring. Home at 13.30 followed by a car shuffle from Napton. Matt managed to drop his MP3 player in the canal at Cropredy wharf, he's gutted. Clive and Stella were the perfect crew.

JET report: Clive attained 'deputy-under-steerer' status, passing the practical exam easily. He started his flower identification module on Saturday evening, finding some 'rare and beautiful' blooms. Stella completed that module early on Sunday morning by indentifying large clumps of said rare flowers for miles once Jannock rounded the bend where we had moored! 'Rarity is in the eye of the beholder', not. Later identified as mimulus, probably M cupreus- common in some parts of northern England, Lake district and Pennines especially, so Clive was not so wrong, in Oxfordshire! Stella readily understood the need to go blackberrying, in 3 diverse locations.We dined on crumble and both took plenty of berries home as souvenirs of exotic holidays and local foods.

2nd Soddit Cruise 2002
(JET course 452.b ' Gambling is not addictive but canals are, discuss.')
Crew - Graham, Ian, Brian and Pete.

(Graham) today Pete fell in the canal at Banbury!
(Ian) more precisely, as Pete called Ian a 'pillock' divine providence intervened and Pete lost his footing and ended up 2 foot under. There is a God after all.
Il ne pleut pas, YET!
(Pete) WARNING!! ... Graham to Ian,'don't take the rise out of Pete otherwise you may be next.' Guess what...within half an hour Ian takes a dip. This time Pete had a camera handy.
(Brian) PALACE 5 Brighton 0
Stockport 2 BRENTFORD 3
(Graham) Once we had moored for the night and consumed the traditional Mackie dinner, we completed "FOUR" games of Soddit (a bit of a record) followed by a very windy night. The latter fact was not attributable to Ian's cooking!

2nd Soddit Cruise 2002
Crew - Graham, Ian, Brian and Pete.

- - - - MAROONED ON A SANDBANK - - - -

(Graham) Weather is terrible; we are experiencing some kind of storm; after breakfast, we set off and passed through Coles Bridge without touching, and then we became pinned to the bank by a strong crosswind after mostly hitting an Oxfordshire Narrowboats hirecraft who had sensibly given up because they were also pinned to the same bank.
After several failed attempts to unstick ourselves we gave up too and played another game of Soddit. (Can this be a record ..... 5 games in 24 Hours!) We then moved another half mile by using the barge pole to keep the front end off the bank. We managed to pass through Kings Sutton lock and then became stuck to the bank again immediately above it. We decided to stop. We then had to use a cab to get the car. When Brian and Ian got to the car at Cropredy, they found a tree had fallen across the canal right next to where we usually moor.

Post Script : Pete sprained his ankle in the efforts to keep Jannock off the bank and had to have a week off work!      Jet courses should only be undertaken by the physically fit!

Crew - Graham and Brenda.

Believe it or not, this is the first trip we have done with just 2 of us.
Today we have mostly been cruising past meusli; apple and hawthorn, extra chunky. Yum, that'll be the wind then. Recovered Jannock from Kings Sutton lock. Stopped at Banbury, Brenda shopped whilst I used the fleeing fly to move the car to Cropredy. Excellent pork joints were bought from the market. Filled up with diesel at Sovereign Wharf @ 28p per litre, (HC 7187)

Crew - Graham and Brenda.

Although athere was no evidence of lavatorial leakage, one day of fine weather prompted us to carry out investigations into why the loo tank only emptied from one outlet. Up to the wharf, and a 'normal' pumpout. Then off came the lid of the tank, and what do you know! - t'other side of the holding tank was still full, long term, rotted down completely. Lid back on and then ...... it pumped out as if there had never been a problem. Graham seems to have fixed it during initial investigations, allowing for a good vacuum seal.. Hooray!
We celebrated with a pint at the Red Lion, proovided by Brian from nb Snark. He'd watched/helped and reckoned it a good morning's entertainment. The Red Lion is back on the list of good pubs!

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Simon and Matt.

We are taking Jannock to Tardebigge dry dock for blacking. This is to be carried out by J.L Pinder & Sons who built her in 1996.
Arrived at Cropredy at about 11:15 having met Cap'n Beeky en route, for essential competition prize transfer ..... Cutweb business.
Reversed up to the wharf, and cream crackered my leg doing a 'just one Cornetto' manoevre. Whilst steering at the bows with the barge pole (the ONLY way to steer Jannock in reverse with anything nearing a wind) the pole got stuck in the mud on the bottom of the cut and when I tried to recover it I trapped a muscle between knee and boat. This action inflicted some 'twisting' damage to my knee. Matt took over as pole-master whilst I collapsed in agony. The pain started subsiding and I started getting some movement back in my leg after about 10 mins but then (and this is the really silly bit) I jumped ashore, landing on same leg....DOH! Confined to the couch for he rest of the journey. Later after re-watering and winding at the wharf, Simon and I took the car to Tardebigge and returned in 'The Lavender Wagon'.

Cutweb (southern) Xmas dinner, and prize giving, at The Globe, Weedon, in the evening. Glen P received his prize, an underwhelming experience mainly as Cap'n B made it himself at no expense what-so-ever. Well done both. A good time was had by all despite a criminal shortage of promised profiteroles for the majority of revellers. ( Never mind, this was made up at Tesco on Monday when 4 hearty breakfasts were had, and profiteroles sourced for dinner.)

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Simon and Matt.

A dry day notable for:-

1. Graham driving through all locks due to injury.
2. A ferrety-mink thing having a nose about at Marston Doles top lock.
3. Sparrow hawk/ harrier and barn owl observed hunting shortly afterwards.
4. Finishing in the dark.
5. Matt presenting me with my 2 piece alloy windlass at Napton. ( explanation required: it started out as a normal one piece, but a particularly stiff set of lock gear redesigned it , permanently.) How strong is Matt?

The evening was spent, for some inexplicable reason, doing a jigsaw puzzle. Xmas lunch leftovers for both lunch and dinner must have induced some wierd post-Crimbo-traumatic-stress disorder. 750 pieces, not finished by bedtime, and Xmas choccies were no help at all.

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