Another Spring day

It feels a bit like we should be keeping a score of the days which are worthy of the term 'Spring' this year; it's not so much that it's been very wet, but the cold is really tedious. Today, although the air is chill, the sun has been shining warmly from time to time, really making it feel the way that it should at the beginning of May.

We made a moderately early start by our standards, setting off a bit before eight and popping up Junction Lock and round the corner onto the water point on the Coventry. Not having watered since we left Mercia, the tank was very low, down to the last marker on the gauge, so we were there for an hour, by which time we had about three quarters of a tank full (it's a slow tap, though not as bad as the one outside the cafe on the T&M).

Sheila started a washload when there was enough water to supply it and the batteries were beginning to charge up. When the engine is first started for the day, the alternator is working hard doing the bulk charge phase, but once the charge voltage is up around 14.2 or above, I know that there should be enough spare capacity in the alternator output to cope with the washing machine's demands.

We then had a very pleasant chug in the sun to Huddlesford Junction. We met a bit of traffic around Streethay; BW have done a good job recently on the Fradley to Streethay stretch, cutting back the vegetation from the offside, so that passing an oncoming boat is much easier than it was. Streethay itself is still a mass of breasted up boats, however, including one on the service wharf getting in the way of a customer having a pump out.

There had been a good number of the usual lurkers round about Fradley, so we weren't surprised, rather gratified, to find that the Huddlesford moorings were reasonably clear, with just a handful of longer term moorers here.

We've spent the afternoon on two main tasks. We'd thought of a literary theme for one of the rounds for the Owners' Quiz in September, and worked it up into a set of questions. We've also thought of another theme for one of the other rounds, but haven't started actually composing the questions for that yet. As I'm sure I've said before, the trick to a good quiz is to mature it over a number of months like a ripe cheese.

I also added some more pubs to the Owners' Pub Guide, courtesy of Derek Apps on Mi Amigo – now that's a thought, a pub theme for a quiz round…

/hmm

The other big job was to clean through the boat; the cold windy weather makes it hard to clean the cabin properly, as you don't want to leave the doors open and stuff temporarily parked outside, but today was ideal. We've swept the floor, dusted the shelves and furniture and brushed the mats.

Sheila reminds me to pass on a warning about the swan below Common Lock, which attacked her as she was manoeuvring Sanity Again; it's hard enough to cope with the boat trying to go aground on the lock landing without a hissing beak on the end of about a metre of neck pecking at you like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Tonight, in company with Des and Gill,  we're trying out the refurbished Plough here; hopefully there'll be a report on that tomorrow.