More catching up at Gailey

Things went pretty well to plan today, which is always good. We got away by around 8.15, worked up Penkridge Lock and swapped places with a hire boat from Gailey which was on the water point. Whilst the tank was filling I had the only disappointment of the day; the newsagent didn't have a copy of the Independent on Sunday. No matter, it's the least important of the week for me, so I was able to cope.

/no

There followed a very pleasant session chugging along through Filance, Otherton, Rodbaston, Boggs and Brick Hill Locks. There was a bit of traffic in both directions, so that we crossed with other boats at about half of the locks, I guess. A fishing match between Otherton and Rodbaston was passed without any bad feeling on either side; the anglers around here seem to be an amiable lot.

We've moored in our usual spot just below Gailey Lock; when we got here we spotted Jacaranda, Dave and Sandy Jones's boat, already here, so as soon as we'd got sorted and the washing machine had finished (so that I could turn the engine off) we went and had another catch up session with them.

We heard all about managing the Olympic Moorings last year and some of their cruising plans for this.

By now it was lunchtime, so I just took a moment to find the post code for the Gailey Roundhouse and text it to Elanor. She and Sally arrived just on three with a stack of post for us, including the vital contracts for Walnut Lodge.

Sheila trimmed Elanor's fringe whilst we caught up on the family goss. As she was planning to go, three guys on an exChallenger boat arrived and started behaving slightly oddly. They tied on the lock landing, fastened a Sea Searcher magnet to the end of a cabin shaft with quite a short piece of line and started magnet fishing.

I popped out to join in the fun and discovered that they had lost a cigarette lighter of sentimental significance. The Sanity Again magnet was also deployed to try the water further out; ours is on a seriously long and strong line. In fact, it's a main halyard for an ocean going yacht.

Perhaps not surprisingly, nothing was found bar an elderly mooring spike. The guys weren't even sure that the lighter (a Snap On one) contained ferrous metal.

They've gone off now, as have Elanor and Sal, leaving us to read loads of legal jargon in the contracts, do this blog post and get our dinner.