Soggy soggy soggy

As usual, the mooring below Tardebigge Top was quiet overnight. We made a semi-leisurely start, planning to be at the Anglo-Welsh yard just the far side of Tardebigge tunnel for nine. Sheila's had a bit of a sore ankle after twisting it on one of our excursions to Morrisons, so I offered to steer today, after I'd worked us up the top lock, of course.

However, she felt it wasn't that bad and did her day on the tiller. Tardebigge Top is spectacular, being twice as deep as the other locks and at 14 feet a contender for deepest narrow lock on the connected system. There was originally a manually operated boat lift on the site, but it wasn't a success and was replaced by this cavern of a lock.

(People are often impressed by the standard of Victorian engineering they see on the canals. To an extent this is deserved, but it should always be remembered that the less successful stuff isn't around any more because it fell down, fell in or collapsed, sometimes quite spectacularly.)

We chugged through the tunnel, having stopped briefly to try the water point and deciding it was too slow to be worth it, then round to the AW place. Here they were shuffling boats to service them ready for the next hirers, but cheerfully agreed to sell us some diesel if only we'd hang on for a bit, and please would we back off a shade to let them juggle the boats. Sheila did a slick bit of reversing and then hovered the boat for quite a while.

Finally, we were able to come alongside the two hire boats and get fuelled up. I also asked for a couple of bags of solid fuel which turned out to be Taybrite. Not my favourite form of coal, but beggars can't be choosers at this time of year. In fact, apparently Alvechurch have stopped selling coal for the summer now, so many thanks to Adam for suggesting we stop at AW.

We've run out of kindling, too, and so had AW, so I bought a couple of the compressed log things Ann Street mentioned in a comment the other day. Here we were lucky too. None of the staff could remember how much to charge for them, so the girl on the till asked me if £1.50 each would be ok? Still not the good deal Ann got at Tesco, but better than what I think they usually cost.

Having got sorted, off we went again. And it started raining in earnest, all the way to Hopwood, pretty well.

As I pointed out to Sheila, I did offer to steer...

We hadn't recalled Hopwood, but it's a handy stop. There's a water point and a good length of visitor mooring, plus a pub offering a rotisserie. It's a Marston's, so presumably the same menu we sampled at Compton the other week.

We've been relaxing most of the afternoon, catching up with bits and bobs. Tomorrow, we'll have a longish day, through the depths of Wast Hill tunnel and the badlands of Kings Norton. We're aiming for Hockley Heath on the North Stratford, about five hours away.

Location:Hopwood

Resting after Tardebigge, then on towards Brum

23rd & 24th July

I guess today has a claim to be the hardest working day of the year, as it's 24/7 (joke).

We had a very peaceful night at the top of Tardebigge, on the moorings just below the top lock. It's strange that they are not better used, as they make an excellent place to take a rest after the slog up from the Queen's Head.

We had a relaxed start in the morning, working up the top lock, one of the deepest in the narrow system, but not at all problematic to work, to the water point. The presence of a BW work boat over some of the water point mooring made it a bit tricky, but we managed to get near enough to get the hose onto the bow. It was a very slow tap, too, so we only took enough to see us through a couple of days and to get a wash load on the way.

Then we went through the two intermediate length tunnels on this canal, Tardebigge and Shortwood, and found a short bit of visitor mooring directly opposite the Alvechurch hire base. They've marked a lot of the towpath here as no mooring, though it's not clear why they need quite so much of it restricted in that way; perhaps they don't trust their hirers' steering.

A 15 minute walk took us into the village, where I got a prescription made up (after quite a wait) and we did some basic shopping at the Co-op, bakers and butchers.

After lunch we trolled round into the hire base and bought copies of Canal Boat and Waterways World. They still had July's WW on the shelf, but produced the August edition from a box round the back, saying that they hadn't had a chance to put it out yet. There followed an extremely lazy afternoon of lolling on the bow, reading papers and comics. Truly we are beginning to recover from the exertions of the trip to Saul.

Another relaxed start today (a relaxed start is defined as one in which we miss most of Sarah Kennedy, and don't finish breakfast until Sir Terry is well into his act.) I took another walk into the village for a paper and some bread, though in the event the baker could only supply me with yesterday's loaf – it seems there's not much demand for whole grain bread in Alvechurch.

When I got back, we pushed across to the service mooring at the yard, having decided that as the amber light had been on on the toilet tank for a couple of days, and we weren't sure of the next opportunity to do a self pump out, it would be a good idea to get the thing done here.

This proved to be an excellent decision. We had one of the best pump outs ever at this yard, with a powerful pump, and the rinsing through the proper rinse out point went on until the tank was thoroughly cleaned. The guy did warn us that turning up on a turn round day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) would not get such good service, if any at all, but mid week it was the best fifteen quid's worth I've had for a long time.

Sheila took us on to the Hopwood moorings after that, where we stopped on a much better water point, and started another wash load. We'd just finished filling up, and were preparing to bow haul Sanity along to the visitor mooring section, when Jane and Colin from Slow Gin appeared on the towpath – their boat is tied just round the corner, apparently, and they were on their way to do some Geocaching.

We stood nattering, Sheila still holding the stern line in her hand. The bow line remained tied to a ring, so I wasn't too concerned to see Hadar, the very convincing Josher style replica, appearing in the distance. As she got near, slowing as she did so, Sokai shot out of the bridge hole behind us, making no attempt to slow down, and as a result Sanity was dragged back and then flung forward by the water surges as the two boats crossed alongside us. Sheila fought to control her with the stern line, and I with the centreline, but we were helpless against the forces unleashed by so much weight passing so quickly.

The bow line twanged like a bowstring, Sanity flung herself against the piling with a crash, and the fairlead on the starboard bow flew off and fell into the bow, having sheared two substantial brass machine screws and the SikaFlex sealant which had been holding it on for the last three years.

Sokai disappeared into the distance with not a word of apology, but we'll be looking out for them, as I'd like to get the name of their insurer. The fairlead will have to wait until we are back at Braidbar, so that the sheared screws can be drilled out, the holes re-tapped and the fairlead refitted.

This afternoon has been very warm and sunny, but we felt sufficiently rested to undertake one of the maintenance jobs we've been putting off. The well deck has been looking rather rusty of late, so we took everything out, and used a scraper and a wire cup brush on the drill to clean off the loose scale and paint before applying KuRust. When it's dried in just a little while now, I'll give the whole deck a spray with red primer, and it can be repainted tomorrow, hopefully.

By then we should be in the centre of Birmingham, after braving the depths of Wast Hill Tunnel and the badlands of Kings Norton.