Down Atherstone in the rain

First of, thanks to all those who commented yesterday; it's when I really feel I'm communicating with people when I get responses like that.

We both had a bit of a broken night last night after the dramas of the day, but still managed to get up at six and start boating again. I'm sure that I've said it before, that although one of the biggest pleasures of our lifestyle is being able to loaf along at our own pace, at times it's very satisfying to get stuck into a passage with a bit of a schedule.

Not that we overdo it even then; we still tend to stop quite early in the day, but starting early lets us fit in a six hour cruise even so.

We had planned to go on to Alvecote and eat in the Samuel Barlow, but for one thing by the time we got to Polesworth it was truly disgusting meteorologically, and for another, the SB doesn't open on a Monday (except Bank Holidays).

We'd had a good run down Atherstone, although most of the locks were agin us. Even at half seven, there were some boats coming up, including some of those leaving the Russell Newbery Register gathering at Alvecote last weekend.

After a stop below lock five for shopping, we carried on down and watered at the service point at the bottom; that's a very good tap, so we soon had the tank full to the brim. It should last us to Mercia now.

Having made our decision to stop, we found a space on the towpath before the official visitor moorings, where it's much more peaceful. There are a lot of other boats here; they seem to be a mix of leisure boats and the usual suspects, the itinerant village of bridge hoppers who drift about from here to Fradley and back.

I've spoken to the always helpful Justin at Aqua, and we're booked into the dry dock at Mercia to change the prop on the 28th of June. We're going to take the advice of Mr Millin (which I know would be seconded by Peter Mason at Braidbar) and change the prop, subsequently sending the old one off for repair and re-profiling, so that we can keep it for a spare.