Staying out for the summer

Wednesday 9 May

Having fulfilled commitments in Alrewas, today we set off for Crick and the summer's cruising. First off, we dropped down Alrewas Lock, went through the river section to the Wychnor moorings and, in view of the still day and low river flow, decided to wind at the short winding hole in the moorings rather than go on down Wychnor Lock and wind in the full length one below.

Sheila achieved this without much hassle and we were soon back on the water point at Alrewas. I nipped into the village to get a paper and, the bread not having arrived, some pasties from the butcher. I got back to the boat just after the tank had filled, and got on the bike to lockwheel up to Fradley.

As we worked up Bagnall Lock, the Coors Shire Horse box turned up, and they led a fully harnessed horse across the lock tail bridge to a field they use on the other side, where they harnessed it to a dray and started driving it round and round. Coors Shire Horses just don't sound the same as Bass Shire Horses, somehow.

We carried on up to Fradley, following the Shakespeare boat Juliet, crewed by (I think) some very pleasant Canadians. Between the first and second locks on the way up, Hunt's and Keeper's, there was a narrowboat stopped on the lock mooring, apparently struggling to take down a wheelhouse structure. Presumably they were concerned that it wouldn't fit under the very low lock tail bridge at Keeper's.

First Juliet and then ourselves passed this boat as her crew struggled on. As I closed the gates behind Sanity, I could see that the steerer had got out a saw, and was now sawing off the uprights of the wheelhouse.

We moored on the visitor moorings opposite the Information Centre at Fradley just before lunchtime. Although it was threatening to rain seriously, we spent part of the afternoon clearing the roof, washing and rinsing it, and then doing the same to the starboard side. The whole boat was covered in fine dirt, a legacy partly of the spray from the pressure washer at Stone, and partly from the dusty towpath at Alrewas.

We'd just about finished when it did indeed start to rain, but at least it meant that there were no mucky rainwater tracks through the dust. Less good was the fact that one of the prisms in the galley ceiling started to leak, as did the frame of the Houdini hatch in the bedroom. We could only take palliative measures at the time - the cause will need to be investigated when it's a bit drier.

Elanor came round for dinner (I'm not telling what we had, as she says this blog is becoming food obsessed. Oh, all right then, it was spag bol). She brought the new batch of books, and took away the pressure washer.

Thursday 10 May

We made an early start, and were soon chugging along the Coventry Canal. At Hademore House Bridge we saw a charming sight - a family of swans swimming along with no less than four of the cygnets hitching a ride on their parent's back. We've seen one or two doing this before, but never so many as four.

The toilet tank indicator light had been amber for just over a week, indicating that it was more than half full, and we'd planned to pump out and diesel at Fazeley Mill Marina. However, it went red, meaning completely full, this morning, so we decided to pump out at Streethay Wharf instead. This location has been featuring in the Granny Buttons blog of late, and as reported by Andrew there, they now have an extended and much better services mooring. The only problem was that we were pointing the wrong way to use it, as the pump out point is on the port gunwale, and the wharf would be on our starboard side.

Streethay does have a huge lagoon mooring, but it was looking very crowded, with boats moored two abreast on the towpath. Nonetheless, I managed to wind without banging into anything, and despite a variable breeze. The young guy who came to serve us was very friendly, but I have to say didn't score top marks in the Napier listing of service skills. He was very casual with the diesel pump, so that some went over the stern deck, and some dribbled down the nice freshly painted tunnel bands on the stern. Rinsing the toilet tank was with a bucket and funnel, and since the funnel wouldn't fit in the rinse out hole, he put it down the pump out aperture. This never gets the base of the tank properly rinsed, and in fact when he'd finished the indicator had only gone back to yellow, rather than the green that means completely empty.

This may sound like a bit of a whinge, but when you are shelling out GBP14 for the job, it would be nice to have it done properly. With a bit of a struggle, we managed to wind again, with Sheila getting off onto the towpath with the bowline to help her round, and then we were away - having got the diesel tank full and the toilet empty, there was a distinct sense of the start of the summer's cruising.

The trip to the Tamworth shopping mooring went uneventfully, though there was a fair bit of traffic in the opposite direction. The highlight was seen in one of the canalside gardens in Hopwas. A bird table on a pole was occupied by a sleeping ginger tom, creating a distinct Garfield effect - we fantasised that a little earlier he'd been lying on his back with a piece of bread in his mouth, and was now fully fed and dozy.

We got to Tamworth just at lunchtime, and just as the heavens opened. After lunch, we made two trips to the shops, one for stuff like more crochet cotton and the oil for the nearly due oil change, and the second to Sainsbury's.

The Houdini has stopped leaking, but the galley prism continues to drip - must look at it as soon as we get some dry weather when not boating.

In the evening we sorted out a rough cruising schedule for the next two weeks, which I'll post separately.