Hit's hon to 'andsacre

Sorry about that – I'm a bit short of sleep after a very good evening last night. We only just got to bed before midnight having disgracefully overstayed on Bunnies. It was such a merry meeting that we couldn't tear ourselves away earlier.

Many thanks, Ian and Sharon, for good food, good wine and excellent company.

We still managed a decently prompt start this morning, being keen to get down Haywood and Colwich locks before the traffic built up. As it was, we found one boat just locking down the latter and had to turn it for ourselves. Sheila steered on through conditions that weren't as bad as yesterday, but were still very breezy with rather lowering cloud at first.

The sun finally broke through as the morning went on, so that by the time we finished at Handsacre Sheila was getting too hot in her rain suit. There was a fair bit of traffic about, but not too much of it encountered at awkward spots.

We didn't stop in Rugeley, having stocked up in Stone, and finally finished for the day at half eleven. Since then, we've been loafing, rather, recovering from the weekend's excesses, you may say. Tomorrow, on to Alrewas. We've seen Bunnies go past, but have lost track of Inkling (thanks for the comment, by the way, Mel!)