I'm sure the weather knows we're on holiday.

The wind gradually increased in speed over night and it stayed mainly dry until early morning and now it's strong winds and light but persistent rain. As a result of that and the five day forecast we've abandoned the idea of going to Banbury and we'll wind TQ at the winding hole in Cropredy instead. (Sorry Brian and Diana).
The engine wouldn't start this morning, I think some water must have got in somewhere overnight. The Beta control panel was dead, and I suspected the 11 way connector which supplies power to it. Turns out I was right, the two halves don't fit too tightly together and some of the connections don't make very well. That coupled with some corrosion which never helps. I bent some of the connectors to help them make better contact, sprayed it all with a generous dose of WD-40, and reassembled it. This time the panel lit up and the starter clicked when tried it. I kept on trying it and after a few attempts the engine turned over and burst into life.

We waited until the rain had stopped and made our way through Claydon Locks, Locks 22, 23,24 and 25 winded and back through Cropredy Lock 25.
We picked a mooring spot in Cropredy on the way down and winded as a fore mentioned and took on water at the point there and wended our way to just North of the new Cropredy Marina, just short of Broadmoor Lock 24.

Here's some pictures of today:-

Through our front window this morning.

A sign yet to be changed.

Poser.

You make up your own caption.

Don't try this at home...

...OR ON A CANAL!

I bet this dogwood looks stunning in the Winter sunshine.

Named after Reg? No, surely not. 

Well, we've been beaten by the weather again, and have had to cut short our plans. Now, we're aboard TQ again commencing May 11th 2014 for a week. So make a note in your diary, " This week the weather will be a pail O'shate"