A change of plan and boating Gailey ahead

After a look at the forecast for this week (great today and tomorrow, gales and rain Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) we've modified our cruising schedule. We'd originally planned to be at Tixall Wide by next weekend, but by putting in a couple of serious days boating we can be there tomorrow and sit out the worst of the weather.

Sheila leapt lightly out of bed just after six; my contribution was to make her a cup of tea and drink mine in comfort. She was rewarded with scenes like this, with the mist just curling over the surface of the water:

By seven I'd got dressed, eaten breakfast and taken over for the rest of the day.

We did just under six hours in all, through the system's most useless lock (Autherley Stop), round the junction and through the Rockin' without in fact meeting anyone. It was now eight o'clock and after another hour, as we approached the Fox and Anchor, other boats were encountered.

Gailey was in its usual state of merry chaos with boats all over the place, but we only had to wait for a boat to come up the lock before we could go down. At half eleven we'd gone down Brick Kiln and were thinking of stopping for lunch. The mooring is a bit better below Boggs – there's even one ring – so we've tied there.

The pound between here and Rodbaston has just dropped a bit and we're leaning over rather; it's about three inches below weir, so if it's still low before bed I may run a bit more down Boggs. I've checked that Rodbaston is OK; I suspect that lock just uses a bit more water than Boggs.

Tomorrow we'll make another early start, stop off in Penkridge to fill the water tank and do some shopping, then go merrily on to Tixall.