Fingerprints in Banbury.

A short cruise to Banbury which should only take a couple of hours. That's if you don't encounter a threesome on a boat that probably didn't take in any of the instruction given to them by the hire company or the boaters that they might have met at the 18 locks they have been through to get this far.

Sue did her best to encourage the friendly trio to go about the lock duties in an orderly fashion.

Sue "When coming in to the lock landing best practice is to use your centre rope"

Lady boater " Oh, someone else told us that" while she starts to use her windlass to let water out.

Sue "No, lets wait until your boat is actually in the lock with the gates closed before we raise the paddles!!"

The bow rope has been tied so tight the boat can't manoeuvre.

Nice people who I think were enjoying the experience, I would love to meet them on their return journey to see if they have the hang of it by then. Most hirers have the hang of it after a couple of locks not so this crew.

Pulled in at Banbury for supplies, I also wanted to take my phone into the Three shop, recently I had initiated the phone lock with fingerprint recognition, this was a big mistake as the phone only recognises my smudge once in every five or six attempts. Very frustrating when you reach the tries limit and a message pops up wait another 30 seconds to try again. I'm better off without the hassle.

The chaps in the shop couldn't deactivate it either, suggested to do a factory reset. I'm not sure about that as I could end up loosing lots of info.

Back to the boat we set off for a three mile cruise to King Sutton, lift bridges are usually left in the up position on this canal, Haynes lift bridge was down, got Sue on the offside to lift it. The wind got up and pinned FL to the tow path, every time I pushed the bow out, the wind would push it back before I could reach the tiller, after 10 minutes of heaving with the boat pole I'd had enough, reversed the stern across the canal leaving the bow on the tow path stepped off with the centre rope and heaved the whole 17 tons across the canal.

The heavens opened and I got a proper soaking before we moored up below King Sutton lock.