The mooring by King’s Bromley proved to be as good as it seemed – very peaceful overnight, and strongly recommended. We wanted to get right back to Alrewas, so made a prompt start.
It was a great Autumn morning, one of my favourite times for boating. There was very little wind, a trace of mist drifting about and although it was nippy, it was nothing that a well-zipped fleece couldn’t cope with.
We got to the top of Shade House Lock just before nine, and followed another boat down to the junction, with a steady flow of boats coming the other way. By 10.05 we’d cleared Hunt’s Lock, so just over an hour for Fradley flight on a Sunday in September – it just shows the value of an early start, and having a lockwheeler (Sheila) who’s prepared to ride the bike from Woodend to Alrewas.
Alrewas was very busy when we got there at 10.45 – we tied near the road bridge and just behind Quidditch at first (when are you taking that boat back to its mooring, Mr Chapman?). While we were eating lunch, Graham and Beryl came through on Priscilla, and tied behind Shiraz a little further along. When they’d had their own lunch they came back for a natter, and kindly offered us some more of their logs. It seems Beryl is a great one for planting fruit trees and then cutting them down after a few years.
By now, there was a vacancy behind them, so we moved up to take delivery of a bag and a half of damson wood. Very nice indeed, thank you Beryl and Graham. While we were standing on the towpath saying cheerio to them, as they prepared to move back to their base in Barton Turns, an anonymous boat arrived being crewed by a couple of wrgie women of our acquaintance, in the shape of Al Moore and Helen Gardner (aka Bushbaby).
They tied in front of Shiraz, so I went up to say hi to them. Meanwhile Priscilla pulled out and Sheila moved Sanity forward to tie where Priscilla had been.
We also had a chance to talk to the owners of Shiraz, before settling into the boat for the night.
Today was one of those days which didn’t turn out quite as expected. Sheila had an appointment at the surgery in late morning, so I’d envisaged a lazy morning, but it was not to be. I gave the TravelPower belt a tweak to try and stop it squeaking, and then started the engine. Sheila said she’d like to run a wash load and then get a shower before going round to the doctors’. She came back from the engine room to report that the mains power was off.
My first thought was that descaling the washing machine yesterday had loosened some critical water joint and caused an earth leak, so I went back and disconnected the machine. However, the TravelPower then went out, and restarting it after a pause, with the washing machine out of circuit, led to the earth leakage breaker opening anyway. Meantime, I’d taken the lid off the washing machine, and there was no sign of water anywhere it shouldn’t have been.
I tried running the wash load with the TP off and the DC alternator on, and it was fine, so it looks as if the TravelPower has developed yet another problem. This time it will keep until we get to Braidbar, hopefully by the end of this month, medics permitting. Meantime, we’ll rely on the DC alternator and inverter to keep things going. It certainly meant that this morning was a lot more exciting than I’d planned.
We’ve since had a quiet afternoon, to make up. Tomorrow, it’s my turn for the surgery, then the Willy Walk, then on to Burton as I have a hospital appointment there at the end of Wednesday morning. Meantime, here’s a picture of Daniel in Sheila’s jumper (i.e. the one she knitted).
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