To Huddlesford to SOW

10th & 11th October

We'd meant to get away a bit earlier than we did on Friday, on a sunny but very breezy morning. I was steering, and Sheila got the bike out and rode from Alrewas to Fradley, working the locks as she went.

It took us a while to get through to the junction, and in particular, I spent 20 minutes below Junction Lock wondering vaguely what was going on out of sight above. This was reinforced by the appearance of Sheila on the bridge over the tail at one point; she held her arms out sideways, shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

When she was finally able to set the lock and let me in, she explained that she'd been waiting for a Canaltime boat that was visible coming down from Middle Lock. They were being very tentative about squeezing through the gap alongside the services flat, then when they finally did so, turned right onto the Coventry, so Sheila could have been letting Sanity up long before.

They probably didn't realise that some Canaltimes would be expected to come straight on on their way back to Sawley, as opposed to heading for Alvecote on the Coventry.

It wasn't particularly annoying: just a Freaky Friday at Fradley.

We turned onto the Coventry ourselves, and stopped on the water point. I took a load of rubbish back to the bins by the BW office, and noted whilst there that they have recycling for paper, glass, cans and plastic.

We plodded on to Huddlesford in an increasingly strong wind. There seemed to be a lot of towpath lurkers around; I suspect that a good number of semicontinuous cruisers are positioning themselves ready to lurk around here during the stoppages, such as they are this year.

Huddlesford was host to a good number of these lurkers, but there was at least space on the 48 hour moorings. Later in the day Quidditch arrived, and in the evening we went off with Will and Martin Clark to get a drink in the Lichfield Cruising Club. This didn't work out – Will couldn't get an answer on the numbers he had for getting us let in, and the place looked to be in darkness.

We went to the The Plough instead, which was very pleasant, but much more expensive. Next day we were told that the Club had opened for us, about ten minutes after we'd been there; it's not clear why Will didn't get an answer to his calls.

Yesterday was the SOW Strategy Meeting. A fair number of people turned up, and we heard some very interesting presentations on the current state of things behind the scenes at BW and EA. As always at these sorts of events, there wasn't enough time for debate. The presentations tended to overrun, and folks for some reason seemed to need to take a chunk of time each talking about their credentials as long term boaters. I wanted to say, "Yes, yes, I believe you've been involved in this stuff for a good while, that's why you've been invited to speak: just get on and tell us what you've got to say, so that we have a chance to discuss it with you."

As a result, I don't feel we really achieved the main objective, which was to get a sense of where folks want SOW to go with its campaign, as opposed to telling them what some members of the committee believe we should be doing.

To be more positive, it was clear that relations with IWA are much more harmonious than they've been for some time, though that in itself brings its challenge: how do we maintain a distinction between SOW and IWA?

SOW is cheaper to join, and has a very simple structure, so can respond more flexibly to a changing situation. The intention is to focus on recruiting the casual user of the waterways, and then use that constituency to bring pressure to bear on elected representatives in central and local government to achieve a sustainable funding structure for the navigation authorities.

Whether that strategy will attract sufficient support to make SOW viable in the medium term is another matter. Time will tell.

In the evening, we went back to the club and had a drink with Des and Gill Barnard. They were on bar duty, and the club was very busy with a birthday party for one of the members, but we still managed a good chat, and will be going back to Whittington for a meal with them later this week.

Today we did one of our flying starts. Sheila got up, dressed and boated off whilst I loafed in bed drinking tea. It was very odd to be lying there whilst she winded Sanity in the junction, but by the time I joined her on the stern, it was a glorious morning, a bit foggy/misty, but a flat calm, mild and just a brilliant autumn morning.

Fradley was busy but not frantic, and we got back to above Bagnall Lock by half ten. We've got onto the last space above the lock – all the others seem to be taken by boats that look unlikely to move again for quite some time.

We plan a quiet day today after the excitements of yesterday, then I'll be down to the surgery yet again tomorrow for my check up.