Suddenly...

... it's turned cold again. The problem with this is that, after the improbably warm weather of the past few days, it feels really chilly, although it's probably not actually all that cold for the time of year. It's given us an excuse to stoke up the fire and have a mug of soup with lunch, so it's not all loss, I guess. Nonetheless, it was strange to be back in multiple layers of wool and fleece, and the fleece beanie rather than a baseball cap.

We took a bit more time to get going today, as we wanted to get a pump out from Norbury Wharf, which was only about an hour's boating away. Not much to report from the trip; not bad, not special, just a steady chug through gradually improving conditions.

We stopped on the water point, as the tank was down to about a quarter full, and I checked that we could get a pump out (some hire yards are a bit iffy about doing private pump outs on a turn round day, but not this one).

It took a bit of manoeuvring to get Sanity Again onto the service wharf the right way round, especially as there were a lot of other boats about, but it got done without too much drama, and we duly got pumped out. An average job, reasonable rinse out, nothing special, which would have been fine if it didn't cost £17 (£20 if you have "blue"). They may be very reasonable for docking and blacking, but that's a bit of a rip off, frankly. A 13 kg cylinder of propane was the standard £25.49, so no complaints about the deal there, even if gas is getting to be horribly expensive.

Then came the challenge of coming back off the service wharf and winding to carry on towards Market Drayton. I decided to put the bow into the arm that leads to the dry dock; this would have been fine, but just as I was lining up, a privateer came zooming through the narrows by the water point. I stopped, and one of the guys on the other boat asked if I was OK.

With commendable restraint (no rude words at all, honest) I explained that he'd just made my life a bit more complicated than I wanted. As they wanted to turn as well, we ended up doing a little doh-see-doh, and finally got round, but it would have been so much easier (as so often) if he'd just had the common to hold back and let me finish my evolutions before starting his own.

We'd planned to go on to Goldstone Wharf today, but realised we'd have a pretty late lunch if we did, so we've stopped at the Anchor at High Onn for the night; an early start tomorrow will still get us to Market Drayton in time to get a loaf of bread for lunch.

Meantime, Chris Wells on his blog about Bella points out that the plans for the High Speed Rail link will sever the Trent and Mersey to navigation just above Fradley, with two crossings at 1.5 and 1 metre above water level. I've alerted various folks to the situation; hopefully a sensible solution will be forthcoming, assuming that the wretched vanity project ever goes ahead, of course.

FOI stuff here, if you're interested.