Down Atherstone

Another early start got us to Atherstone top just on eight and by nine we were tied below Lock 5; there was plenty of room. There had been a good few boats tied on various bits of Armco on the way, so it looks like Atherstone continues to suffer from the towpath telegraph info that it's not particularly secure overnight at the moment.

We got a good shop done, mostly in Aldi, then back at the boat Sheila started the engine and the washing machine whilst I stowed the grub and made some coffees. I had steered up until now but gave Sheila a break from locking when we set off.

Things were very busy now, with a lot of traffic coming up, so we had a slowish run down. We were told that the flight is to be stopped tomorrow, info I've subsequently confirmed from the CRT website, though I've not seen an email notice about it, which is odd.

The stoppage, from eight til noon tomorrow, Tuesday, is another attempt to clear the blocked culvert at Lock 10, which continues to cause delays.

It was gone twelve before we emerged from the bottom lock, so we pottered on to a towpath mooring just beyond Grendon Dock. We're only planning to go as far as Alvecote tomorrow anyway, so not reaching Polesworth today is no big deal.

We've had a quiet afternoon, punctuated by boats hurtling past. Presumably they think that having  been held up by the delays in the flight is a reason for inconsiderately charging past moored boats. We're tied to a good bit of Armco with a spring deployed, but we're still being bounced about quite a lot.