Steadily on

After a much better night last night, we've settled into the groove of serious passage making, with just a couple of days to go. I was awake by quarter to six, so got up and started making cups of tea whilst Sheila washed and dressed. Then she boated on and I got sorted and breakfasted.

Alvecote was still full of Russell Newbery types, but we had no difficulty getting through. We saw Traveller's Joy there with Dave and Tricia on board (at least we presume Tricia was there, we only saw Dave waving in his dressing gown).

/wahaha

By ten to eight we were at the top of Glascote Two; I worked us down and the bottom lock was  as slow to fill as ever. They've finally managed to cure the leaking bottom gates, but the top paddle culverts seem to be half blocked again.

Farne was tied near Peel's Wharf, and Sheila tells me a curtain twitched aside for a hand to wave.

Just on nine we got to Sutton Road Bridge, and tied for a quick shopping trip. We went to B&Q for one or two bits and pieces like metal primer and some more hose repair joints, and then to Sainsbury's, where Sarah will be pleased to know that we got, inter alia, bread and a paper.

Off we went again, the weather being very nondescript but getting gradually colder. We'd not seen many more lurkers since the mob at Polesworth, but found some just the other side of Hopwas Woods. We've come on a bit further, and stopped for the day just before twelve.

It's been a quiet afternoon; I've lit the stove yet again, and we've been reading and looking up general knowledge crossword answers on the web.

Ambling along

We've dropped back into ambling mode, with time to kill and boating around on water that's very well known to us. We made a leisurely start this morning, and Sheila steered along the bit of the Coventry that's really still the Birmingham and Fazeley (interestingly, if you're a geek, the map on the Garmin shows it as the B&F), through Hopwas, where we admired Indigo Dream tied up safe and sound, and on past the woods to a really rural stretch by Tamhorn Farm, where we've tied for the day and night.

It was barely enough boating to recharge the batteries (about an hour and a half) and to get the hot water hot in the calorifier. We've sat tight on the towpath since. The change in the weather is quite dramatic, being cloudy, breezy and chilly, so we really didn't fancy doing anything outside. There's been a lot of traffic past, much more than we saw either on the Stratford or the BCN.

We did have a chance to play with the radios, each secured on a nice new lanyard. They perform very well over the short range, certainly; we haven't tried them over longer distances yet. The sound quality is very good, a testament to how far digital signal processing has come in the ten years since we last bought PMRs.

The pair of wrgies known as the Americans* have just boated past, and stopped long enough for a quick natter. They couldn't stay longer, as they need to be in Whaley Bridge on Saturday, which is heavy boating by anyone's standards.

*At their first national camp, somebody said that there were some newbies from Iowa, having misheard what they said. In fact they're from Iver, near Slough, but the name has stuck in true WRG fashion.

Windy winding

We'd planned to reverse from our mooring back to the junction at Huddlesford, to save going on to Streethay to wind, but it quickly became apparent that this was the tedious option. The canal was just so shallow that Sanity Again kept prop walking back to the towpath, so we gave it up and shoved off to Streethay after all.

I find winding there a right pain, frankly; there's barely enough room to do so, and they will moor boats on the towpath opposite the widest bit of the lagoon. As usual, we ended up having to rest the bow on the side of one of the moored boats in the echelon, and motor the back round. The gusty wind didn't help much, either.

At last it was done, and we toddled off back to Huddlesford and on to Whittington. Here we stopped for a bit to buy a paper and some fresh stuff, and to post our postal votes, Elanor having brought the doings with her last night.

All done, we carried on to wind again beyond Tamhorn Farm Bridge, and tie on the towpath just on the Whittington side of the same bridge. The winding hole at Tamhorn is another that's only just long enough for seventy foot. About half way round, I went astern to ease her back a bit out of the hole, only to find that she wouldn't move. The bow had run hard aground, and much shafting was required to get us going again. This is another situation where a bow thruster would have been useless; it would have bunged up with mud immediately.

After lunch, Elanor and I walked Sally along the towpath to Tamhorn Park Bridge, and so into Hopwas Woods. As I expected, these proved to be ideal dog running terrain. We put the 10 meter line on Sal and let her romp about to her heart's content. By the time we were approaching  the other bridge out of the woods, Hopwas Woods Bridge would you believe, she was looking quite weary.

This was until she spotted a squirrel somewhere up the slope and went after it with the afterburner on. The squirrel got quite a fright; it bolted for a large oak and ran a little way up it, whereupon it stopped to sneer at Sally. Sally, however, had hit the tree so fast, she went about six feet up it, and the squirrel had to make tracks hastily further up the trunk to avoid becoming a tasty afternoon snack.

Back at the boat, we settled down to read and do quizzes, or, in Sally's case, to catch up on much needed zizz.