Water, diesel, and back to Alrewas

23rd & 24th March

When we woke yesterday morning, it had been snowing overnight, and there was a sprinkle lying on the ground, but by the time we were up and about it had all gone. Nonetheless it was still chilly, though the wind had dropped away.

We pottered round to the water point outside the BW office at Fazeley, and set the washing machine running whilst we refilled a pretty empty tank. The pressure at this water point is so good, it had managed to fill around 570 litres before the wash cycle had finished heating. The odd thing is that the other water point nearby, opposite the junction, is so slow we'd probably have finished the entire wash load, including all the rinses, before getting the tank full.

As it was, I stopped the machine, turned the rotary control on to beyond the heating bit, and restarted it, so that the TravelPower wouldn't cut out trying to deliver enough juice for the heater whilst passing all the moored boats at tick over. Just shows again the virtue of the simpler control for our purposes.

I then made a slight bog of the turn into the Birmingham and Fazeley. It's a tricky turn at the best of times, with the bridge that carries the main road across the junction awkwardly placed, and I hadn't made sufficient allowance for what wind there was blowing up the stern and pushing the boat forward. It was only a case of using a bit of reverse helm and prop to ease Sanity round the turn, but it was enough to give Sheila an excuse to wind me up.

I did a better job of getting into Fazeley Mill Marina, I'm pleased to say, which is also a tricky turn, though fortunately sheltered from the wind on this occasion. We filled up with diesel, although the price was quite wince making at 80 pence per litre.

I then managed the reverse out of the marina reasonably well (I am informed by Sheila). Then it was back to the Sutton Road Bridge mooring briefly, in order to get a paper and a loaf of bread for lunch from Sainsbury's. I had thought of stopping at the junction – there's a Tesco Express by the road junction there – but the bread from Sainsbury's is nicer.

The only problem was, the Sainsbury's was shut. It seems they don't open at all on Easter Sunday, though we'd seen no signs up about it whilst shopping there during the week before, and they'd certainly been open on Good Friday.

There was nothing for it but to set out to get to Whittington in time to get bread at the Co-op there, which we managed to do, arriving at 12.30.

The afternoon was taken up in cleaning the boat in anticipation of Des and Gill's visit. It was a good evening, with the meal and wine and gossip all flowing freely. After dinner, I admitted I'd been pleasantly surprised that Sod's Law hadn't manifested itself – the current gas bottle must be getting low, I said, but it hadn't run out in the middle of cooking dinner.

This morning I got up at a relaxed hour, put the kettle on for tea, revived the fire in the Squirrel, walked back to the gas stove, and guess what: the gas had run out. Rather than half dress to go out into the cold morning to switch the supply over, we decided to do without tea in bed for once and got up straight away, sorting the gas as soon as I was dressed so that we could have coffee with breakfast.

We got away around nine, and Sheila steered back to Fradley, where the Bank Holiday had brought chaos in its wake, as per spec. There were boats all over the place, and a goodly crowd of gongoozlers, despite the cold weather (later it snowed), and BW had decided this was the ideal time to cut the grass. There were a Flymo and a guy with a strimmer, mixing it with all the visitors.

Who would have thought there'd be so many people around on Easter Monday, eh? Come to that, what's a supposedly cash strapped operation like BW doing paying double bubble on a Bank Holiday for routine maintenance work?

Our trip down Fradley locks was of course a bit slower than usual, especially as up ahead there were a couple of guys working an aged and definitely unconverted motor boat towing a pair of even more scruffy looking GRP minicruisers, aboard which one of them was living, seemingly.

One of the boaters going the other way coined the best description – "It's a skanky boat towing two more skanky boats" she said. Finally though, we got through even Bagnall Lock and tied by the bowling green for a very late lunch.

We were just finishing when Dan and Lesley Love made themselves known to us. They were boating past in the boat on which they are living whilst waiting for Kala, their new Braidbar to be finished.

We had a good chat on the towpath – they want Sheila to make some porthole doilies for Kala, which is to be this year's show boat at Crick.

Just as we were finishing our natter, Graham and Beryl came past on Priscilla. Priscilla is moored in Barton Turns Marina, and Kala will be in Shobnall, so there's a cluster of Braidbars building up in this neck of the woods.

Tomorrow we stay put – I've got an appointment at the surgery, and Sheila is going on the Willy Walk, then on Wednesday we are off again down to Burton for eye tests on Thursday.