A sunny weekend

8th & 9th August

The night before last was one of those hot and sticky ones which really disrupts your sleep. We made an early start as a result and set off to do our geocaching while it was still comparatively cool.

We started by finding the cache which had been missing the day before, thus being the First To Find the new version of the cache. On our way back past the moorings above Shade House Lock we got into conversation with the folk on Recycled Teenagers, whom we had last seen at a Save Our Waterways meeting at Huddlesford Junction.

This meant it was rather later than we'd planned when we set off along the Coventry Canal to find a series of five caches around Fradley village. The day before, we'd ordered an Independent at the boatyard shop, and we picked it up as we went by. We had another successful hunt, although one of the caches was again apparently missing on our way out. On the way back, however, the GPS indicated a different tree as the location and we found the cache easily.

We were glad to get back to the boat and put our feet up in the heat of the day. It was very pleasant to sit in the bow and watch the world go by. It being Saturday, there was an awful lot of world going by, and Sheila fielded many admiring remarks about her crochet.

When we'd got back to the boat it was the only one left on the moorings, but by mid afternoon there was no space left. By six o'clock boats were moored on all possible locations including the lock landings, and more were arriving with expressions of dismay.

Many of these were Shakespeare hire boats from their new base at Mercia Marine near Willington. The question of the amount of training a hire crew should receive is a vexed one. I know from my acquaintance with the relevant research that people only remember about half to three quarters of what their doctor tells them during a GP consultation, so I can well believe that hire crews are told a great deal more than they absorb during handover. But it would seem a good idea, especially at the height of the season, if they were warned about the difficulty of finding moorings at the end of the day at honeypot sites such as Fradley.

Meanwhile, it was the privateer tied behind us who showed the poorest behaviour that we have encountered for a while. I don't have a problem with people having a beer and a jolly time with their mates on a warm summer's evening, far from it, but providing backing music for the entire moorings from your iPod driven speaker system is thoughtless. Even Sheila, who is quite fond of Jim Reeves and other music of that kind, found it a bit much.

They eventually retired inside at ten o' clock and we went off to bed. Once again it was a hot night, so we slept with the Houdini open, and were therefore startled into wakefulness at half one by the terrier from the boat behind barking to be let back on the boat.

Not only that, it was a good five minutes before he succeeded in attracting attention (there must have been a lot of that beer) and it made it very difficult to get back to sleep. We hadn't set an alarm (we seldom do) but didn't need one this morning as the dog was barking again at around six. Presumably they had let it out to do its business unsupervised.

So – if you find yourself tied near a 55 foot mid blue Springer called Early Doors, my advice is move, no matter how late it is or how difficult it will be to find another mooring.

We did manage to doze for a bit longer before getting a cup of tea. We needed to refill the water tank, which was best done first thing whilst there was still a decent pressure in the tap. But we didn't want to set off for Alrewas until about nine o'clock, so having drunk our tea and got dressed, we shafted the boat silently straight across to the water point and ate breakfast whilst the hose was running.

Tank full, we shafted Sanity back again and had a quick natter with the guy on the boat in front of us whilst waiting to set off. We were just about to do so when Dave Venn on Daizey V came down Junction Lock and tied on the water point. Dave is the Health and Safety officer at the National Festival and we had a quick natter with him before setting off.

Our timing must have been right because we had a very straightforward run down to Alrewas, crossing with a boat at each lock but never having to queue. There was plenty of room above Bagnall Lock, so we've tied here for the night. It has meant that we have been able to run the engine to do two loads of washing without worrying about disturbing the Sunday peace of the village.

Dave subsequently came past; he's trying to get a day ahead of us as he wants to arrive at the site on Thursday rather than Friday.

We've had another idyllic afternoon, reading the paper, doing crochet, and a bit more work on the quiz. The weather forecast's not quite so good for the rest of the week, but hopefully we'll see only a little light rain.

Tomorrow we'll go on down to Branston and then there will be a busy day on Tuesday, taking advantage of the last supermarket we pass, and getting diesel and a pump out at Shobnall before ending the day near Willington.