Feels more like summer

Last night was so mild that we slept with the bedroom Houdini cracked open for the first time this year. During the cold weather, the condensation on the Houdini frame is too much to put up with, so we close it, and cover it with the square bung. This means sleeping in a very dark room, and we much prefer, when it's feasible, to keep the hatch just a little open (propped on a wine cork) so that we get the benefit of the early morning sun.

In turn, this means that we are up and about earlier, and can start boating earlier, always a good idea during busy periods on the cut.

Today, we were off at eight; Sheila winded Sanity Again in the Wide and took her back to the junction to get water. We had planned to wait until Penkridge, but a bag full of accumulating washing changed our minds. Sheila executed a neat turn and reverse in the junction, so that we ended up on the water point facing back the way we had come. Her task was made more interesting by a collection of Anglo Welsh boats tied on some of the water point moorings; they really should try renting some out to make some money and space on the moorings.

I popped into the village to get a paper, and came back to find the tank half full and a queue forming for the two water points.

Once filled up, off we went again, back round the junction and on to Tixall Lock. I worked us up, then started the washing machine as we were now on the long pound round Stafford. The bridge at Radford Bank is now much easier to negotiate, the crazy girdering on the offside having been replaced by a neat bit of banking.

By midday we'd passed Stafford Boat Club, who now have an impressive new iron bridge across the entrance to their marina. You can tell it's new, there are still netting barriers across the ends of it, presumably whilst the paint dries.

A boat passed us going the other way as we left SBC, and so we found Deptmore Lock with us. You can tell that the Staffs and Worcs is an old canal by the way that the lock depths vary. Tixall is quite shallow, and Deptmore is one of the deepest on the system. Later canals, such as the Shroppie, have locks all about the same depth, so that the same volume of water accompanies you down the canal.

We tied just above Deptmore in glorious sunshine, and hung the washing out to dry on the whirligig before eating a slightly late lunch. We'd not long finished when Free Spirit came by, crewed by fellow blue shirts from the IWA Festival team. We gave them a hand to work down the lock. As we did so, I realised I'd not bothered to put my jumper back on, having been sitting in the boat in my shirt sleeves.

It felt seriously summery, really quite strange when it was so cold in the easterly wind just a few days ago.

It must be this supermoon they keep on about ;) .