Two days good boating

23rd and 24th March

We got away in good time yesterday, as we wanted to get a pump out and diesel at Anglo Welsh, and the forecast was for rain later. In the event, we arrived at the yard before the staff, just as they open at 8.30, and we were there at twenty past.

We had the usual cheerful service; Sanity took rather more diesel than I was expecting, just, and when I filled in the spreadsheet that we use to calculate our propulsion/domestic split, it became apparent that the engine consumption had gone up.

For most of the time we've had the boat, the engine has used between 1.2 and 1.3 litres per hour, but recently it's been down around just 1 lph. I'd put this down to variations in pump gauges and the amount by which the tank gets filled, but it now occurs to me that the declining consumption might have been a warning sign of the fuel filter collapsing and restricting the fuel flow.

We'd not noticed any change in performance, as you would with a road vehicle, but of course the engine is so lightly loaded that it's unlikely that you'd notice her not pulling as hard.

We heard a trio of classic BW stories from the yard staff as we were filling up. The ground paddle at Great Haywood has finally been repaired. It took two stoppages, during one of which nothing happened, then at the other, no less than 18 blokes turned up, of whom 2 actually did the work.

Meanwhile, someone from English Heritage came to inspect the Junction Bridge, which is a listed structure. It needs some maintenance, and BW are asking Anglo Welsh to foot the bill, as their customers use the bridge (along with hundreds of others, of course).

BW did hire two of the AW day boats as part of their programme for giving the HQ staff experience of being on the water, but even that was not without its hassles, as they had to complete a substantial risk assessment for this highly dangerous activity.

Chuckling gently to ourselves, we set off to head back towards Alrewas, in increasingly gusty conditions. Sheila demonstrated how to wind in the junction in such circumstances, when there is a very real risk of being blown onto the reed bed on the offside. I stayed on the towpath with the bow line, so that I was able to help the boat pivot round. Then, when Sanity was starting to point in the required direction, I coiled it up and chucked it onto the foredeck, before walking down to set the lock.

We went on to what is becoming our favourite mooring this side of Rugeley by Bridge 69, where we sat out a bit of real equinoctial weather, with fierce winds and rain squalls.

Today we made another prompt start, getting to Rugeley just on half eight after 40 minutes boating. A good shopping trip to Morrisons followed, then we set out once more. Normally we'd have stopped at Kings Bromley, but we knew that there was a chance that Elanor would drop in tonight, so we decided to press on to Fradley.

There was plenty of room above Shade House Lock, where we took a long lunch break, including starting a wash load, so that the machine was through its heat cycle before we wanted to set off again.

We could have stopped there, but it would have meant quite a trek for Elanor from the car parks at the bottom, so we worked down the locks under the supervision of a variety of gongoozlers. It looks as if the Easter holidays have started early for some. As today's lockwheeler, Sheila spent a bit of time doing her public education bit, which always adds interest to a routine flight we know so well.

A slight flaw in our planning became apparent when we got through Junction Lock; there was no room on the visitor moorings. There was nothing for it, we went on to Alrewas a day early. We've been able to tie above Bagnall, and will probably stay here now until Friday when we leave to go down to Burton.

There's a fast internet signal here, which we wouldn't get in the village, and no houses around to annoy with running our engine. Tomorrow I'll do a post to the Building Sanity Again blog, hopefully, about communications, I think.

Final touch – Elanor just rang to say she can't make it tonight, but will call in tomorrow. Ah well, the long run gave the batteries a good charge, and Sheila has had the benefit of the exercise.