Saturday 29 June 2013

Chugging on through Rugeley


The internet here at the pig farm mooring has become quite amazingly slow, even though the modem is showing a strong signal; maybe everyone is watching Wimbledon on iPlayer. It’s a shame, because we’ve had a good day in general, even if we didn’t sleep brilliantly last night. We’d estimated two hours from Kings Bromley to Rugeley and another 45 to 60 minutes from there to the pig farm at Bridge 69.

So we set off at half seven, having been up since just after six, and did indeed take almost exactly two hours to get to the shopping mooring. After the first half hour the battery bank had finished the bulk charge phase and the water was good and hot, so Sheila started a washload. This was almost done by the time we were ready to stop; we just had to wait ten minutes or so for the final spin to complete.

Once that was done, we went to Morrisons and to Lowndes the greengrocers. Shopping done, off we went again, Sheila now steering whilst I stowed the supplies. I took over before we got to Brindley Bank Aqueduct, where for once I made a complete hot milky drink* of the turn and had to go astern before I could get the boat round.

I was being tail gated at the time, but I really shouldn’t have let that influence me. Once over the river, I slowed right down and waved them though. They soon disappeared into the distance; slowing down for moored boats, blind bridge holes or anything else clearly wasn’t part of their technique.

Now feeling much more relaxed, we ambled on to find the pig farm moorings vacant, though they’ve filled up a bit as the day’s worn on.

It’s been another quiet, not to say dozy, afternoon, the weather now quite warm and sunny; there's another steady run in prospect for tomorrow, through Great Haywood and about halfway on to Stone.

*A Horlicks, in other words

No comments: