On line at Lowsonford

On the way down here, there was no 3 signal at all; on the way back, there's a weak signal, but enough to get by on. They must have sorted out a dead mast or something, I guess. Before we left Wootton Wawen this morning, I tried to catch up with all outstanding email and blog comment stuff, expecting not to be able to do anything this afternoon. Maybe that's why it's working here today.

Anyway, here we are, after a very pleasant run this morning, in much better weather than forecast. We had an encounter with a group of four strollers at the lock below Lowsonford, and Sheila had a conversation about marinas with them. Apparently there are four applications in for this canal, and one of the blokes was chairman of the anti group for the one here.

It was all perfectly pleasant, he wasn't frothing at the mouth or anything, and I must say I don't see the need for four; it's not as if this canal is stiff with online mooring or continuous moorers. It seems one of the other sites is Hockley Heath, and I can see more logic to that. After all, Lowsonford doesn't even have a shop, just the one pub, and you'd have to work locks to take even the shortest run out.

There was plenty of room here when we arrived at half ten, and the visitor moorings have only slowly filled up as the day went on. I think there may be one space left now (ten to five) so getting here late is not a good idea.

We've used the afternoon to do a bit of boat cleaning, and Sheila has started making a side fender from some rope we had ready cut from years ago. All our tidying has brought all the spare rope to our attention, so the plan is to use it all up, as being easier to store as fenders, if nothing else.

Tomorrow and Wednesday will be hard working days as we work up the Lapworth flight, but then no more locks for a while after that.

Not all good, then, but pretty good...

Last night at Lowsonford (sounds like an arty film) there was very little Vodafone signal, and nothing at all of either 3 or O₂, thus no blog. I was able to tether the mobile to the Mac via Bluetooth and get email and stuff, but blogging would have been a step too far.

Also, we met Adam and Adrian, who have not long bought Briar Rose, Braidbar number 76. They invited us in for a celebratory glass of wine in the late afternoon, and it turned into a very pleasant evening. Adam cooked chilli, which he served with home baked bread rolls (scrummy), and we sat, gossiped and swapped scandal until quite late.

During the day, we'd had a very pleasant run to Kingswood Junction, then down ten locks to Lowsonford. I took some photos on the way:

Lets just tie on the lock landing, why not?

Stratford Lock cottage

Steerer's eye view of a Stratford Lock

The visitor mooring at Lowsonford is quite limited, so turning up in good time is wise. Adam and Adrian ended up locking down and finding an unused long term mooring almost at the next lock.

This morning, we did another nine locks, ending up at Wooton Wawen. There's a substantial farm shop complex here, but don't let it stop you from visiting the equally useful village shop. On the way, we passed Braidbar 70, Phoebe, going the other way, the second time this year, the last being on the way up to Crick; it just shows how we get about.

Here at Wooton Wawen, we found The Briar Rose, crewed by Geoff and Helen, fellow workers at the IWA Festival. Adam and Adrian caught up in due course, so we had the two Roses in view.

The bad news is that at lock 36 my nice new PMR radio somehow slipped off its temporary lanyard and fell into the lock. We fished about with the Sea Searcher magnet for a bit, as testing the other one showed that it would just grip the radio, but it was really  a case of satisfying ourselves that we'd done all we could.

We're so pleased with them, I've ordered another pair, so we'll end up with three altogether. But this time, proper lanyards will be made before we deploy them...