In view of the weather forecast, today was not a day on which we'd have moved normally, but the thought of beer, and food, and beer, in the Bleeding Wolf got us going by eight. The rain then came down in tanker loads, but we slogged cheerfully on to the Red Bull services, where we stopped to fill the water tank and start a washload.
Tank full and washing well underway, off we went again, the rain still teeming. Sheila made the turn into the Macclesfield canal with aplomb (and by waggling the tiller about a lot, whilst I stood on the bow and waved my arms). We then started meeting boats coming the other way, which made for interesting boating past that long line of moorings before the aqueduct.
It had almost stopped by the time we got to the Stop Lock, appropriately, and we paused there for yet another boat to come down before being helped up by the very friendly crew of the Alvechurch boat on the water point beyond.
There was just room to get in on the end of the visitor moorings which were otherwise full.
Retreating below, we started taking off the soaking outer garments: waterproof, fleece, sweatshirt, polo shirt – what's this, oh it's my skin…
/blur
My boots had leaked as well, so the socks had to come off too. It was like playing billiards in Las Vegas…
/wahaha
A mug of soup apiece helped a lot, and a bit after twelve we got respectably dressed, put on fresh waterproofs and walked over to the pub.
We've had an excellent afternoon with Peter and Jan, catching up on the family goss, and are now contemplating a quiet evening, recharging the batteries before tomorrow's invasion.
/sweat
Mind you, I've had to light the Squirrel, what with all our wet stuff to dry, plus the washload.
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