Good company with John and Nev

26th & 27th October

After an excellent evening on Waimaru, the night before last, we woke to a damp morning. We had the excuse of making a lazy start, the clocks having gone back overnight, and finally ambled off towards Fradley sometime just after nine (GMT).

Waimaru followed on, and after an uneventful but very pleasant bit of boating we arrived on the visitor moorings at half ten or so. Coffee together on Sanity was followed by separate lunches. John had mentioned that he'd got some concerns about the drive belts on Waimaru, so after lunch I went on board and had a look.

Right enough, both the TravelPower and domestic alternator belts felt a bit slack. Waimaru's Beta 43 has the new style adjuster on the domestic alternator, so that proved no big problem to tweak up. The TravelPower resisted my admonitions for a little, but eventually co-operated.

Starting the engine showed that both are still a little slow to excite. I don't think there's much wrong, but suggested to John that he check with Simon, his tame engineer back at his home marina, when he gets back.

John and Nev had noted that the Cheese Boat was tied further up by the Junction, so Sheila and I took a stroll up there before going to Waimaru for a cup of tea. The Cheese Boat guy has extended his range of stuff a bit, and we bought some organic Welsh Blue Vein cheese as well as some chilli and whisky infused ones.

Last night we returned the favour and John and Nev came to Sanity for a meal. Another jolly night was had, it hardly needs saying.

It was a bright morning this morning, so we got our act together quite early and pulled over to the water point to top up. It was its usual slow self, and Waimaru had left long before we were in a position to set off. They turned left at the junction, on their way back to Calcutt, whilst we went straight on up through Junction, Middle and Shade House (or Shed House, or Shadehouse; it all depends who you believe) Locks.

The cut was quite busy, as you'd expect this week, it being half term for many of the English schools. We had to queue for a bit below Woodend. The Canaltime coming out was complaining of drive problems, and despite chucking back as advised, things didn't get any better.

The guy on the boat in front was clearly worried about his paint work, so we helped the Canaltime stop alongside us, and I went down their weed hatch for them. There was a ball of old rope and other stuff round the prop, but it came off reasonably readily.

My elbow length rubber gloves make all the difference in those situations. It means it's not a race between pulling the stuff off the prop and losing all sensation in your hands the way it is if you try to do it barehanded.

The delay had enabled the coal and diesel boat Bletchley to catch up. We had planned to go into Kings Bromley Marina tomorrow (they are not open on a Monday) to fill up with diesel before the duty goes up next month, but Bletchley was selling it at 74 pence per litre, so we stopped above the lock and got him to fill us up.

After that we ambled on again, stopping on the towpath just beyond KB. It was just starting to rain, so good timing all round today.

This afternoon I've finally made a start on the new fenders. Sanity's present bow and stern fenders are a disgrace, so the winter's project is to make some nice new ones, using my usual rubber door mats as a core and half hitching over them with Victory Black.

I'm doing a tipcat first, with the mat rolled sideways to make a long thin core. It's held in that position with cable ties, with the ends of the roll a bit tighter than the middle to make the tipcat shape. Stuff the inside with bits of gash rope saved for the purpose, and off you go.

On through Rugeley tomorrow, to moor at Wolseley again, where with any luck we'll find some more geocaches.