Back to Alrewas for a few days

13th & 14th November

The night before last was disturbed at its outset, briefly, by a boat passing us by at 11 pm: boating by moonlight. The next morning was not so clear, and on a grey day we set off for Rugeley, where we did a serious bit of shopping before carrying on to the Spode House water point.

We'd had a coffee after shopping and before leaving, and started a washload, which was virtually finished by the time we got to the water point, so that we were able to fill the tank right up again. The cunning plan is to spend several days at Alrewas, so we wanted to get the tank good and full; since the tap at Fradley is so slow, we only wanted to have to do a brief top up there this morning.

Chugging on again, we lunched on the move, the first time we've done that for a bit, and got to Shade House at the top of the Fradley flight by about two. These moorings, which are 14 day, are usually very busy, but this time we had a choice of spots. In the end, we tied next to a smart tug called Napier.

It's really noticeable how quiet the cut has been this week. We've seeing very few boats on the move, mostly Shakespeares and Ownerships, with the occasional liveaboard repositioning like ourselves.

It was a quiet afternoon; the Eberspacher started without trouble again, so I'm beginning to be cautiously hopeful that I've solved that problem, but of course time will tell.

What with one thing and another, I'd never had my birthday steak, so we did that last night. These were some of the hip bone steaks I got from Coates the other week. I did them very simply, with a braised onion, mushroom and garlic garnish, potato wedges and peas.

This morning was beautifully bright to start, although it clouded over a bit as the day went on. We dropped down the Fradley locks, duly topped up a nearly full tank by the BW office, and then came on to the moorings above Bagnall. Once more, they are sparsely occupied – just the three boats here at the moment, which is really surprising. We'd expected to find more lurkers about: perhaps they are all further down in the village.

Just as we stopped, the engine hours counter reached 6000 hours, so I spent a bit of this afternoon doing a big service: oil and filter change, gearbox oil change, check the fuel water trap, top up the batteries. I'd tightened the stern gland the other day, and changed the air filter and refilled the stern greaser last time.

Just as I was finishing, who should come by but fellow blogger Nev Wells on Water Lily. He moors at Fradley, and is out for a trip up to Stone with some mates. He'd just come down here to wind below the lock, but was able to stop long enough for a quick chat before he went on.

Sheila has spent the afternoon cutting wood, so we are both possessed of a sense of virtue just now.

Elanor will stop by later; I'm borrowing her car to go to the IWA Finance Committee meeting at Rowington Village Hall tomorrow.