We made it

Since the forecast indicated a steadily deteriorating situation, we made as early a start as we could, getting underway at half seven, when it was just about light enough to see to boat. At first, the weather was quite pleasant, calm and dry, though it had rained and blowed overnight.

I winded Sanity Again below Bagnall Lock without too much trouble, though the winding hole was well silted up with disuse. It's amazing how quickly things go back without traffic; the paddle spindles are rusting already, for example.

All went swimmingly until we got to Branston, when a long threatened rain squall burst upon us as I approached the lock. Sheila, who had hopped off at the bridge by the pub, got the top gate open in good time, but even so, just as I lined up in the throat of the lock, a huge blast of wind shoved the stern sideways, and Sanity Again cross winded (ie jammed) hard. A good example of Sod's Law that the worst weather should strike at the most exposed lock.

On we toddled through rain and hail, Sheila now steering to give me a break. I worked Dallow Lane and then took over the helm again. The rain and wind came and went; for much of the time it was fine, and most of the showers didn't last too long. It helped, too, that the wind now mainly came from astern, so keeping a steady track through the water wasn't too hard.

At 11.45, Sheila relieved me again, and I went below to make us mugs of soup and to eat lunch. By the time I'd fed, Willington was on the horizon, so Sheila prepared her lunch but left it to eat later.

My turn into the marina entrance nearly came off; with the wind still from behind, I needed to get the bow round and into the hole quickly. I misjudged it slightly, and we hit the piling splay around the entrance a bit of a clonk, but then it was just a matter of motoring the stern round and so into the entrance channel.

Boating across the marina was fun, with Sanity Again crabbing like mad with the wind on her side, but fortunately the passages around the lake are all quite wide, so there's plenty of sea room to take corrective action.

The boat which shares our slot between the pontoons has a Saltire flag flying from its bow, and as it moors stern in, I had a good indication of the wind speed and direction as I approached the pontoon. It was a case of turning her into that wind, which was blowing onto the starboard bow, again going for it quite hard, then hard astern once the bow was in the lee of the boat alongside, so that the wind pressure was now pushing the stern round the way I wanted it to go.

We  touched the pontoon quite gently with the port bow, and once more it was a case of helm over and revs on to bring her round parallel to the slot and in we went. It all went much better than I'd feared in the small hours of last night. As I say, in these conditions (wind speed 20 mph, gusting up to 40), you've got to be "bloody, bold and resolute"; creeping up on the target is just not going to work.

So here we are, once more snug and sound with the shoreline connected, and all the facilities of the marina to draw on.

A quiet day tomorrow, methinks.