Thursday 21 September 2017

Down Fradley with lots of help

Today was scheduled to be rainy, but it held off for most of the morning and only really got going as we were mooring. Sheila set off a bit before eight as we were keen to get to Fradley in good time in view of traffic levels yesterday. It was quite pleasant first thing and we merrily chugged along to Woodend.

Here there were two boats waiting to go down and one coming up. Both boats in front of us were heading for the Huddlesford Gathering this weekend. At least both top paddles are working at Woodend these days so it only took half an hour for us to get through. On we went to Shade House where we had to queue again for a bit. In view of the expected traffic going to the Gathering, CRT had rostered a volockie at each lock and two on Junction.

It made life very easy for Elanor and I – Sheila had the harder task juggling the boat about waiting for each lock. As usual, the lockwheelers walked from Hunts to Common. Since the fields are all down to arable production round there, it was possible to give Sally a run off lead which she much appreciated. She’s been scampering about a lot in these last few days, clearly enjoying her holiday.

For the last couple of locks we were following fellow Mercia moorers Bill and Jo on Lady Victoria – rumour has it that we are being pursued by Wynne and the other Jo in their newly repainted Voyager coming back from Streethay.

One tale we were told by a boat coming up was that Coates the Butchers in Alrewas is closed for refurbishment. A brief discussion amongst the crew led to the decision that this was an excellent excuse for having fish and chips tonight…

The forecast is fine for tomorrow with not too much wind, so we plan to finish the trip by carrying on all the way to Mercia. I’ll try and do a final post after that, then take a break until we move Sanity Again to Shobnall next month for blacking.



Location:Alrewas

3 comments:

Jo said...

Yes, we'll be setting off from Streethay tomorrow morning. But I suspect - even there's no high nor low road - you'll be in Mercia afore us. Particularly since you're already in Alrewas. It's me and him and Robert on Voyager!

Bungle said...

You still there Bruce? Seems you have been stuck at Alrewas for 5 months!

Bruce in Sanity said...

Nope, vanished completely!

We made it back to the marina the next day and I never got round to a closing post, as you probably realised! We're just finishing a month back on the boat during the compulsory lodge closure period, moving back on Thursday.

Note to self – do a catch up post once that's done with the cruising plans for 2018.

Watch this space!

Come to think of it, WRG Nigel knows where we are as we met him whilst Aqua were finishing his new boat, so your grapevine has let you down ;).

All the best

Bruce