A relaxed weekend

6th & 7th October

It’s been a relaxed weekend after all the charging around during the summer and the hassles of the last week. We made a lazy start to Saturday, ambling down to the village for about ten to get supplies of fresh food. The butchers, Coates, was particularly busy, as they deserve, but sadly didn’t have any of their excellent Cornish pasties in stock. So we got a big pork pie instead. I also bought 5 lbs of mince, and put four of them in the freezer when we got back to the boat.

After lunch I checked the engine over and ran it for most of the afternoon to recharge the batteries. We’d bought a new broom for using on the outside of the roof. Previously we’ve just got a cheapo beast from the supermarket, but we’d found one in the Rugeley Wilkinson’s with a proper wooden head and handle, the handle in unfinished white wood.

While the engine was running I dug out the tin of wood finish, and gave the handle a first coat.

In the evening we were bidden to dine with Will and Jane. Will had cooked a curry, and we ate this with some nice, meaty New World wines. Having put the canal world to rights, we wandered back to the boat just after midnight.

A brilliant evening – thanks a lot Will and Jane.

Today the lazy mood continued. Sarashay, the boat behind us, left in the morning, so we pulled back into their space to be nearer the water point. Whilst doing this, we were told that the boat nearest the WP, Timewarp, was going this afternoon. Later in the day, Tony off Timewarp confirmed that this was the case, and came and let us know when they were going. We’ve pulled out round Kingfisher that was between the two of us, and are now tied on the bit of the visitor mooring right by the WP, within reach of our hoses. This is handy as our various commitments in the village mean that we won’t actually leave here until next Saturday at the earliest.

Meantime, we'd been the beneficiaries of some more hospitality. Graham and Beryl of Priscilla moored just the other side of the bridge hole from the WP and invited us for a coffee just before lunch.

I continue to be bemused by some of the decisions BW take. We’d noticed a while ago that part of the long term moorings below Hunt’s Lock, the bottom lock at Fradley, had had some smart pontoons added, though the bank there is perfectly sound, deep and with piling in good condition.

Coming past on a walk on Friday, we spoke to Jan on Huff ‘n Puff, whom we know from when we were all at Crick Boat Show the year we moved on board. Jan tells us that BW had explained to them that they had £47,000 left over in the budget, so they’d spent it on this unnecessary bit of work, because it could be done quickly.

Just down the cut from these moorings is Common Lock, which has a really difficult top lock landing. If they wanted to spend money in this area, why on earth didn’t they put the pontoons there?