August 6 - 11 Fairport Cropredy Festival

Tuesday August 6 at Cropredy (0 miles, 0 locks, EH 3875)

Got up late and did a few jobs before going to our car an hour away at Sutton Stop, with Ali in her car. We had generous, tasty lunches at the Greyhound, ploughman's sandwich & chips,omelette & chips and soup & roll. Ali left for home, while we had quite a big shop in the nearby Sainsbury's, where John managed to get Birthday card and one or two little pressies for Liana, whose BD is on 9/8. We then went to Fenny Compton Marina and bought two extra long mooring pins plus a postcard, once we got in the electric gate by talking to the microphone. There is a small chandlery, limited to the basics, but that was fine for us.

Once back on the boat, shopping was packed away, and John pruned the badly overhanging tree so that it didn't hit the roof or block the solar panels too badly. The evening was clear after the rain (which we missed), but very windy.

For tea, we just had slices of fruit loaf, John with tasty ASDA extra mature cheese, then binge watched series 2 Downton Abbey. The last episode was crammed with incident!!

The batteries don't seem to hold charge well now, so we ran the engine to top up. The Inverter cuts out when the batteries read 91%, so something is wrong. That interesting chat with the chap at Braunston Midland Chandlers comes to mind, when he pointed out that being on the boat half the year made us liveaboards, so batteries are used daily, not for two days a fortnight, like most leisure batteries. Hence he thought a couple of years was ok! Ho hum, when replacing six acid batteries costs £500 or more, while NiFe cells or Lithium batteries can cost thousands :(

Wednesday August 7 at Cropredy (0 miles, 0 locks, EH 3876)

Cloudy and windy, so we ran the engine to charge the batteries. We are having a rest day before the next three long, hopefully enjoyable and rain free days at Fairport Festival half a mile down the canal at Cropredy village.

John wore his jeans for the first time for a while, and we walked to the village past the newish Cropredy Marina, full of boats. Two boaters we chatted to near the shop sid people had paid £180 for three days mooring there, over the festival. We're happy saving the money for beer!

Cropredy village is largely stone built, with some thatched cottages. The Brasenose Arms is fully geared up for the festival, with bands playing in the afternoons as a free alternative. As John supped his pint, we chatted to self-confessed ageing hippy John Roberts in the bar: He and his friend have been to Cropredy for many years, and John said he had organised festivals himself. He regaled us with stories over a pint, before we continued our village walk. A lady in the lovely stone church gave us much information about it and the bell ringers. John may well go on Sunday to ring (0845)and attend the service at 0930. We bought three solar lights from the artistic lady at the Urology Boat, on the way back.

Liana cooked lamb for tea, early, and we had strawberries and cream again :)

Thursday August 8 Cropredy Fairport Festival day 1

Friday August 9 Cropredy Fairport Festival day 2

Saturday August 10 Cropredy Fairport Festival day 3

Sunday August 11 after the ball