Escape from winter

That's what you call irony in the title... But we have set off at last despite the return (hopefully for only a couple of days) of thoroughly damp and cold conditions. We slept on the boat for the last three nights so that the lodge could be cleaned and made all ready for reoccupation in September. After a rather disturbed night last night (must be the excitement) we were up and about in good time to receive a delivery of coal and 13kg of propane from the estimable Grahame Clamp at eight o'clock.

It was Sheila's turn to steer and at ten past eight she backed Sanity Again off the pontoon, turned in the basin behind and boated round the maze to the exit. We chugged along, huddled up in fleeces and waterproofs with little traffic to observe. Indeed, just four boats came the other way in two and a half hours boating.

There were a lot of boats tied on the Willington moorings, but very few elsewhere. Dallow Lane lock was with us and Branston against. Neither are very deep and they didn't hold us up for long. There were no other boats here on our preferred mooring at Branston, that is the east side of the new bridge, though another has joined us since.

It's still early in the year, of course. It was now half eleven so we tied quickly and walked through to the new Co-op in the village where we bought bread and milk. The roads are still chaotic around the new development. We're planning to stop here tomorrow, hoping for warmer weather on Friday (and less flow on the river at Alrewas once the effects of 12 hours rain the night before last has washed through).

It will give us a chance to explore what's going on round here and to finish off putting the boat into cruising mode. The isolation transformer needs stowing away under the bed and various cables and bits of mooring line tidying away.