Heading for the National

10th & 11th August

After the meteorological splendours of the weekend, it was a damp start yesterday morning, although the rain was never very heavy. Since Sheila's sore eye, though improved, was not fully recovered after two weeks treatment, she again presented herself on the doorstep of the surgery at a quarter past eight.

Meantime, I made my way to the butchers and bought a stock of meat to see us through the next ten days or so, after which we will be being fed on the wrg camp. Back at the boat, I had just finished stowing the meat away in the freezer when Pat Barton's boat, Quercus, came past.

Pat was not, however, steering. Instead another blueshirt stalwart, Kevin, was on the back. I popped out to give him and his partner a hand down the lock and we had a brief exchange of news.

Whilst this was going on, Sheila came back from a successful consultation and we were soon able to set off in our turn. Since it was still before nine, the pharmacy was not yet open and we decided to get her prescription filled at the fancy new pharmacy in Branston village.

We stopped on the water point to fill up and then had another steady run down to the moorings at Branston Water Park, at which we arrived just a bit after twelve. As forecast, the weather remained damp and it became rather clammy as the morning went on, sufficiently so that we made ourselves mugs of instant soup to go with lunch.

In the afternoon, Sheila walked through to the village to get her new eye drops and the rest of the day was spent in the boat, opening the doors and side hatches during the brief periods of sun, and closing them again as the next burst of rain swept through.

We managed to get some catching up done and the Braidbar Owners' quiz is very nearly complete.

The weather today began rather cloudy but improved steadily as the day went on, and as I write this it's gloriously sunny. We timed our departure from Branston to arrive on the Morrison's mooring just after eight, and by nine were back on the boat laden down with supplies. Then it was on to Shobnall Marina, where we got diesel and a pump out and I obtained a refund on the fuel filter. They had managed to obtain an engine alternator drive belt for me for the reasonable price of £5.75.

There was another brief scrum as Sheila reversed Sanity out of the marina, made more interesting by the fact that the crew of the hire boat waiting to come in didn't understand that Sanity needed to be well clear of the turning area before they could swing their boat round to slot it in under the towpath bridge.

We crossed with Ami Bovard at Dallow Lane Lock and then had a comparatively uneventful run to bridge 25. There was a good deal of traffic on the cut, mind you, and Sheila's boat handling skills were put to the test from time to time at bridge holes and narrows. Bridge 25 is about half way between Egginton Wharf and Willington and there is a useful length of piling just to the West of it, overlooking some gravel pits. Here we've spent a very relaxed afternoon sitting in the sun.

Tomorrow we will carry on to Swarkestone, probably with a brief pause at Willington to buy a paper and possibly some more bottles of red wine. We did so much other shopping at Morrisons we couldn't have carried any more back with us and we're down to our last two bottles.