Down the Aylesbury Arm.

We reached Marsworth Junction just after lunch so rather than stopping we turned onto the Aylesbury Arm. The Arm has a total of sixteen narrow locks spread along approx six miles, finishing at a basin in Aylesbury. An indication of how important this canal was to to Aylesbury, the price of coal was halved upon its opening in 1814.

First job was to set the top locks, a set of two in a staircase. It didn't take long to move into some beautiful countryside although, at the start, the locks were coming thick and fast. Wiltstone was only approx one and half miles but when we arrived we had already knocked over eight locks, half the number on the Arm. By the time we had finished the rain was setting in so just enough time to moor up and close up before the heavens opened. Just an aside; Wiltstone is a place of note for having the last recorded witch hunt in 1751.

We were keen to get to Aylesbury so no exploring in the morning we just set off hoping to make Aylesbury by lunch time. All was going well although the reeds were beginning to close in onus and the canal was starting to look more like a drain. The canal had been rather shallow for a while and Serafina was working hard right up until just passed Bridge 10 where we stopped moving forward. We had no luck trying to go forward and for a while we weren't moving back. We were having difficulty with forward gear and after and inspection and a few checks we gave River Canal Rescue a call. An hour later the technician was with us, had diagnosed the problem and sorted it. We gave the canal another go but got stuck again. We gave it away at that stage and reversed back the 300 metres to the winding hole, turned around and moored just off the winding hole for the night. We walked to the bus stop (1.5 miles) and took the bus into Aylesbury.

A view from the winding hole before the reeds close in to a single track of water about two metres wide.

The problem with the boat turned out to be the gearbox overfilled with oil. Apparently the oil was thinning and overheating and so not giving us any drive. A few shots of our walking tour of Aylesbury, mainly around the market square:

Corn Exchange

Clocktower

Fountain

A bronze life size tribute to David Bowie who released two of his albums here in the early '70's.

Back to the boat and it was overnight at our mooring before heading back up the locks to the junction. There seemed to be plenty of water on the canal although obviously it badly needs dredging. I contacted CRT and let them know! Serafina has a 24" draft which means that after Bridge 10 we were lying in less than that, mainly silt.

Locking up with the water overflowing the front gate:

The last lock, moving into the bottom chamber of the staircase lock.

Serafina performed perfectly once we had a bit of water underneath us. A chat to our mechanic is in order when we return!