Banbury to Cropredy.

Saturday 31st January.

Banbury to Cropredy, 3.8 miles and 3 locks.

Yesterday evening as we had no TV signal to speak of, Keith and I were both working on our computers. Keith was on facebook and I was working on my family tree, which has become very addictive. In the past few days I have learnt that my 2nd Great Granduncle Thomas Henry Cosser was an able seaman on H.M.S Duke of Wellington in 1881. She was the flagship of Sir Charles Napier at the Crimean War. I also lost two relatives in WW1 Albert William Cosser a private in the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and Albert Victor Brewer of the Gloucestershire Regiment, 13th (Service) Battalion (Forest of Dean), both are buried in war cemeteries in France. I always thought my family was boring, but it appears not. Even my Grand-father was a Warrant Officer Class 1 RSM in WW2 and served in the 8th Army under Montgomery. It really amazes me that I never knew this from my family, not even about my Grand-father. I am really enjoying the ancestral search and cannot wait to find out more about my family. It has all been with the help of a friend, who loves doing family trees.
Before heading off to bed, I made up the back cabin stove and whilst doing so with the doors open, I got chatting to Jen from NB Witchcraft which was moored behind us. We met her husband Bill earlier in the day. It was a really lovely evening to stand out chatting, whilst watching the police cars and vans rushing over the Tom Rolt bridge, just a typical Friday night for them I guess.

It occurred to me this morning that as January draws to a close, we have been on the move for just over a year now, and in that time we have covered 1317.7 miles and worked 907 locks. OMG 907 locks, I guess I should remember them all, but I am afraid I do not. It has been an incredible years cruising. We have met some fabulous people, made many new friends and caught up with old friends, around the system and of course sold coal to lots of lovely customers. We look forward to another year of excellent cruising to pastures new.
So now on to today, we waved goodbye to Banbury at 9.55 am for this year and left Brian on NB Kyle behind. Unfortunately we did not get to see him before we left, but we have no doubt that we will see him again, hopefully later in the year.
Our jaunt to Cropredy was pretty uneventful and only took us 1 hour 45 minutes, we only saw the Cropredy Canoeists out for their Saturday session. It was such a contrast to a couple of weeks ago, when we were struggling through ice, the same trip took us 4 hours 35 minutes, but then we were pushing through 1 to 1 ½ inch thick ice at the time. The weather has turned colder and there is snow forecast, yippee. But whether we will see any of it is another matter. Having arrived in Cropredy we pulled into the 14 day moorings and tied up before I made us some lunch and a coffee. During the afternoon we took a stroll up to Cropredy Church to have a look around the church yard in search of a friends ancestors, sadly we did not find their head stones, but so many of them are now unreadable, which is a real shame.
Right now it is absolutely beautiful out, a cold sunny winters day on the Oxford Canal.