Friday the 13th

I hadn't realised that it was Friday 13th when I awoke. I soon worked it out! My first bit of bad luck occurred when I took Bonny for her morning walk in the stunningly beautiful area of Pigeons Lock near Thrupp. She was behaving herself beautifully when we met a small woman with two big dogs. One, an Alsation Husky cross at a guess, was obviously on guard. She didn't help matters by making it sit in front of her for ages while we approached. It was snarling so I asked the woman if it was OK to pass by. She said yes, but as soon as we got close the dog lunged towards Bonny and the woman lost control of it. I immediately put myself between the attacking dog and my wee girl, earning myself a bite in my calf.

Fortunately it didn't break the skin and only left a bruise. The woman was very apologetic, but I suspect this wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last. Bonny seemed to think everything was fine and trotted on quite happily!

We cruised today through four locks and the impossible lift bridge (I had just about worked out a way of doing it myself when a boat came along). After 7 miles or so the wind was getting troublesome so I decided to moor up. There are some lovely water meadows between the canal and River Cherwell near Somerton with long lengths of great Armco so that was where I stopped. What I hadn't reckoned on was the force of the wind blowing across the meadows, straight into the side of my boat. As I got her almost to a halt and stepped off with my centre rope, the wind pushed her straight off again and the bow swung round and embedded itself in silt on the far bank of the canal. The stern did the same on the towpath side so that the boat was almost sideways across the canal. I pulled and pulled on the rope but could not get her to shift. I then threaded a C clip through the rope and by pulling hand over hand I eventually got it close enough to secure the centre rope on the Armco. Then it was a matter of pulling a bit at a time and eventually getting her into the side. It took me over 10 minutes.

Then, just as my arms were giving out and I'm trying to tie the centre rope on so I can sort out the bow and stern, a boat came by not at all slowly and my arm got trapped between the rope and the roof of my boat. (Thank you very much n/b Phoenix). Once the boat had passed, which obviously didn't take long, my rope loosened a touch and I freed my arm. There is a lump where the rope pinched the flesh and a bruise around the lump. It could have been so much worse! My back, neck, arms and legs also ache from all that pulling so a day off cruising tomorrow.

We are moored in a very lovely spot with loads of walks, so at least someone is happy!