It was another day when it all went to plan, more or less. I made a quick trip to Tesco first thing for the paper, and by half seven we were at the top of the Farmer's Bridge flight, preparing for a lot of locking. Things went very smoothly for the first 13, as a couple of BW men coming up the flight had set all the locks and left the top gates open.
I guess they realise that the first boats through will be going down; no one would spend the night at Aston Junction. As a result, we took just an hour and a half to get through; it was Sheila's day to lock, and she opted to do them all. Neither of us are quite sure why; I was expecting her to change over several times, but she never did.
The 11 Aston Locks were mostly against us, so much slower. It takes longer to do the Aston flight anyway, as they are more spread out, and there are fewer opportunities to work ahead setting the next lock. It started to rain as we approached Salford Junction, the one under Spaghetti Junction, but then it always does. Sheila steered for a bit, whilst I got a washload running.
Our troubles really started along this stretch. Adam and Adrian had reported things scraping under the boat along here the other day, and Briar Rose isn't as deep draughted as Sanity Again. We actually stopped a couple of times, and had to back up and take another run at it. Indeed, halfway down the Minworth three, I couldn't even reverse off, and had to blow the horn for Sheila to come back from the lock and haul on the stern line to get the boat clear and floating again.
At last, it was all done, and we've tied for the night at Wiggins Hill. There used to be a steak house here, and the place was shut altogether last time we came this way, but an Italian restaurant seems to have opened just recently.
We had to spend a bit of time this afternoon clearing, not the prop, which was amazingly clean, but hauling a tangle of string and stuff from round the top of the rudder stock.
Tomorrow, we go down Curdworth to stop at Kingsbury Water Park, one of our favourite moorings.
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