On our way

We finally got away this morning, setting off at twenty past eight in excellent boating conditions. It was a pretty straightfoward run for most of the trip, with only a few other boats on the move. I steered initially, handing over to Sheila as we approached Horninglow Bridge. Here I hopped off and walked to Dallow Lane Lock as usual. Although we'd just passed a Canaltime boat going the other way, the lock was against us.

I radio'ed Sheila to hang back as there was a fisherman smack in the middle of the lock landing. Fortunately, Dallow Lane is an easy lock to work and not very deep, so I had no bother turning it before Sanity Again was in sight. Once up, we decided not to faff around taking the used oil to the tip and carried on past Shobnall Fields and through Shobnall itself. I left Sheila steering whilst I baked the bread for lunch from the part bakes I'd bought yesterday.

This proved to be a cunning move on my part as conditions deteriorated rapidly with heavy squally rain showers making life difficult for the steerer. Once the bread was done, I popped on my waterproof trousers ready to work Branston Lock. It really chucked it down whilst I was doing that and persisted all the way to the visitor moorings. I walked straight past the beginning of these as someone has half-inched the totem over the winter; a surprised radio call from Sheila brought me to my senses.

The rain carried right on until we were tied and the cratch cover dropped, after which it cleared up and the sun reappeared. This pattern has continued all afternoon, bright calm sunny intervals interspersed with rain squalls. We grabbed the opportunity of one of the former to move the long-suffering plants down off the roof and into the shelter of the cratch. They are joined in there by a big wodge of canvas and a carrier bag of rubbish, both collected from the Branston lockside. We'll drop them off at Fradley tomorrow.

With all this rain, we did wonder about the state of the Alrewas river section, especially as the Dove was running very high when we crossed the aqueduct. However, a check on the EA river levels site for the Trent at Kings Bromley was reassuring; the river is well inside normal levels still.