Objectives achieved

It was a pretty broken night last night, with wind and rain from time to time, and the impact being extended by drips from the overhanging trees bouncing off the roof. Still, at least it meant we were up and doing in good time yet again. The rain had stopped, but it was still pretty breezy, and I was glad of Sanity Again's good behaviour in such conditions.

We boated to Peel's Wharf and filled the water tank properly; I nipped off and got the paper whilst this was going on. Then it was round to Fazeley Mill Marina for just after nine. I managed the turn off the Coventry onto the Birmingham and Fazeley without hitting the towpath for once, but the entry to the marina was a right hassle. Having filled the water tank, the bow was swimming very deep, and the offside mud grabbed it in a loving embrace.

This meant that when I tried to motor the stern round, the whole darling boat slid sideways down the cut. In the end, I managed to get the stern into the towpath bridge hole (we need to reverse in to have the pump out on the right side) and we finally got onto the wharf.

There's a new woman doing the work there, and very helpful she was. We took 62 litres of diesel and just managed to pump out in the time allocation on the machine. Exiting went much more smoothly; another boat was waiting already, so our early start paid off.

Back we went the way we'd come, with the wind blowing some of the time but the sun shining quite a lot too. We've come on through Hopwas to tie on the towpath beyond Hopwas Woods; there's a good view here, and no trees, so hopefully a more peaceful night tonight.

Meanwhile, BW have done it again. Anyone remember the great bollards fiasco, when they spent a fortune installing three bollards at every lock, regardless of whether they were needed? Take a look at Maffi's post about the new safety rails on the Staffs and Worcs Locks. Things are now much safer for people riding their bikes across the lock, but the licence paying boater may well have his head knocked off. I mean, OK, it's only two miles an hour or so going into a lock, but how would you like to stand there whilst I hit you on the head with an RSJ at 2 mph?

I despair, I really do – does no one at BW actually think this stuff through from the point of view of those who pay their wages?

/XD

Edited to add: Sarah on Chertsey has done a really well balanced post about the whole issue too; her level headedness puts me to shame!

A recommended mooring

This mooring just short of Hopwas Hays Woods, aka Whittington Ranges, is highly to be recommended. We now have several neighbours, and there's been an enormous amount of traffic, but it is Easter weekend, even if it has turned a bit cool ad cloudy today.

We took a walk this morning, over the first bridge into the woods, had a bit of a wander round up and down dale, then found the track that leads to the second bridge out of the woods, and so back along the towpath. According to the Garmin, it was just under two miles, but one could easily extend it by going deeper into the woods.

The ranges are still used on occasion, but not very often as far as I know, and they would make a brilliant dog running place. Just hope the pooch doesn't come trotting back with a cylindrical object in its mouth...

Back at the boat, we pottered about doing various jobs. I checked the engine, and found that the fuel pipe joints I tightened the other day were still leaking just very slightly, so nipped them up a tad more. As I understand it, they are the sort of joints that shouldn't be overtightened, so I'm being a bit cautious.

I also turned to and gave the bathroom a good clean, and earlier on, we'd checked out the PMR radios. These had misbehaved themselves the other day when we were using them navigating the Armitage Tunnel. I thought I'd put fresh batteries in them at that time, but it may be that the ones in question (rechargeables) had been sitting in the box too long after being charged.

With fresh batteries in, I walked away from the boat with one radio, checking in with Sheila sitting in the bow with the other set every 100 metres or so. They performed perfectly well after a quarter of a mile of this, so it looks as if it was a combination of tired batteries and the rocky terrain that gave us bother. This is reassuring; the radios are around ten years old, so it wouldn't have been completely surprising if they'd begun to fail a bit.

After lunch, we spent a good bit of time sitting out in the bow. Although quite cloudy most of the time, it was pleasantly warm. Chalfont came past, with a reader of this blog in the bow (great to see you) and a steerer wearing a WRG tee shirt.

Coming in the opposite direction was Guelrose, with Mike Moorse in the bow entertaining what looked like grandkids, and what had to be his son steering. They were soon back, having just gone to the winding hole; Mike said he needed the boat turned round to clean the other side, but it looked like an excuse for a tootle down the cut to me.

Tomorrow, we'll carry on to Sutton Road Bridge, and do some badly needed restocking at Sainsbury's.

Lazy in the heat

After a quiet night at Huddlesford, we ambled on to Whittington, with the plan of pausing there to get a paper, before carrying on to Hopwas. We had originally thought to go to the Sutton Road Bridge mooring at Tamworth, but a) we're trying to lose time, and b) mooring there on a sunny Easter Saturday night might not be so good.

The first part of this went off without a problem, Sheila steering gently along the Coventry to find an easy mooring on the outskirts of Whittington. We tied, and I popped off to go to the Co-op to get the paper and a further supply of salady stuff.

The Chairman of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust lives just by the bridge there, and the signs were up for a coffee morning in aid of the restoration. It didn't seem too much to ask to hang about a further half hour to give them our patronage, so we settled down with the quiz in the Indie magazine to pass the time.

Our decision was rewarded by a chance encounter with Gill Barnard of Farne, who came past walking the dog. We had a nice natter with her, and that took us up to ten o'clock, time for coffee.

Having consumed the coffee, and bought books and a ready to cook slab of rhubarb crumble, we set off again, taking a photo of the festivities as we went:

We've actually stopped just a bit short of Hopwas, before Whittington Ranges, in fact, on a quiet piece of towpath with a nice view. We've spotted a yellow wagtail sitting proudly on top of a bush, and otherwise not done an awful lot, as it continues to be very warm indeed.

We'll stay put tomorrow, then plod on to Tamworth on Monday, so as to get some shopping in at Sainsbury's before going on to Kingsbury Water Park (large stores aren't legally allowed to open on Easter Sunday in the UK).