Settling back in

OK, so you're all waiting to hear about the fish and chips ;)

Well, they were OK, no more than that, I'm afraid, and, in our view, not worth putting up with the noise from the railway line that makes the Willington VMs so uncomfortable. Next time we fancy fish and chips on the way back to the marina, we'll get them from Alrewas. Specifically, the chips were cut very small so had cooked rather hard and there wasn't enough fish inside the batter.

Yesterday, we arrived in the marina between eight and half past and pumped out. Jules came across a bit before nine and sold us some diesel, 130 litres, in fact, and we were back on pontoon Y21 by ten. We spent the day packing up to move back to the lodge and nattering to Peter and Melanie on Inkling who had been across to the Aqua moorings for some snagging and were just back.

Elanor finishes early on a Friday at the moment and came over with Sally in the late afternoon to help us move stuff into the lodge. Sheila looked after Sal whilst the car was loaded up, which gave her the happy opportunity to natter to Trev and Rachael who had come across to see Peter and Melanie, being fellow Aqua owners. After moving loads of stuff up to the lodge, we had a gentle walk round the marina, taking our time as it was so hot.

Getting up this morning, we realised the breakfast cereal was still on the boat...

The plan is to do stuff in the lodge today, then tomorrow we'll start on a whole series of cleaning and minor repair jobs on the boat.

A night in Willington

Setting off at 7.45 once more, we had a good run to Willington, arriving just three hours later. The route is showing the benefit of CRT's work in cutting back offside growth and dredging shallow spots. Sanity Again maintained 3.5 mph when not creeping past moored boats or sneaking up on blind bends.

We had plenty of choice for mooring when we got here, but it's really filled up now. As we approached the village, we saw several Mercia moorers heading the other way – clearly the better weather is having an effect on cruising plans.

We've got Mirabilis tied in front of us for the night and have been exchanging loads of chat with them all day.

After lunch, we popped into the village to stock up on perishables like grapes and salad stuff that we can't get from the marina shops. Back at the boat, we put the coal box away in the bow locker and cleaned up the well deck, so that SA is now definitely in summer cruising mode.

The cunning plan is to have fish and chips from the new shop here tonight then go into the marina first thing tomorrow. We need diesel and a pump out and to refill the water tank. Elanor is giving us a hand on Saturday to move stuff back into the lodge. If this weather holds, we'll be able to get a lot of outside work done next week, touching in the paintwork here and there and washing and polishing the cabin sides.

This will be the last of the daily blogs until we are cruising again, but as before, I'll blog from time to time with news about us.

Exercising

Keeping well exercised in the winter is important, so today we walked to Betty's Farm to buy some meat for the weekend. It's a solid walk which took a bit longer than usual. This is because we set off from the boat at ten and by half past had made it as far as Still Waters, having stopped to chat to numerous folk on the way. We were finally on the road by quarter to eleven.

At Betty's we bought a selection of meat and some banana shallots. I'm planning to cook chili con carne for the family tomorrow and the shallots make a pleasant change from onions. We stopped to commiserate with Simon about the loss of their best ram, taken from the field just behind the house and butchered on the spot in the middle of the night. It's a bizarre choice of animal to steal as it's the middle of the tupping season and the meat will taste even stronger than a ram's would anyway.

The police are seeking the perpetrators, obviously, and a broken knife was left behind to give Forensics something to work on, but there's not a lot of hope. It's not just the loss of a favourite animal that's distressing, it's the thought of several men with very big knives loose so near the house that's alarming. The ram weighed 17 stone, so it will have taken a gang of them to overpower it and drag it away.

Having had yet more chat with various folk on the way back it was nearly noon before we were in the boat. After lunch and a short break, we set out again, to the office about one or two things and to check the post and then into Midland Chandlers to take advantage of their Freaky Friday offers. Oil absorbing mats, cratch cover cleaner, some Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure (ready for the next time the prisms decide to leak) and a rechargeable torch/nightlight were obtained with a 20% discount.

On the way back, we popped into the lodge to check out a central heating problem (the clock had lost track of the time) and to set up the aforesaid torch. Back at the boat, we've been doing IT stuff.

Tonight, Beef Sovereigns from Betty's and tomorrow, an invasion of family to look forward to. I'll try and blog, but can't promise.



 

More mixed weather

We've had another peaceful and productive day here in the marina, cheered by the thought of escaping soon. After a relaxed start, again, we ambled down to the village, mainly for the exercise, but we also took the opportunity to post a couple of business letters and to pop into the Co-op where Dave was working behind the till. We bought what turned out to be a seriously nice loaf of "Mediterranean" bread, a crusty bloomer with herbs, dried tomato and olive bits within. (We ate the lot for lunch.)

Getting that sort of bread makes a nice challenge for me; I'm still working out how to duplicate their other favourite which features pumpkin seeds and bits of Red Leicester cheese.

We were back at the boat in time for coffee and a bit of loafing about until lunch, as a result of which I'd finished not only the paper but also the crossword before it was time to eat. The weather, which until then had been quite pleasant, now started to rain so we had to wait a while before we could take our second walk round the marina, ending with a visit to the office.

Here we collected a parcel containing socks. Sheila had bought some really nice Sock Shop socks with "gentle grip" tops at Crick and then some more by post before we left for Stourport. As I'm not supposed to use socks that compress my feet or lower legs, I got some for myself, ordering them as we headed back to Mercia. These are really good too, so I've bought four more pairs so as to have enough for a week's supply.

Tonight we're off out again, to eat with Jo and Wynne at Oak Lodge, a very happy thought, then tomorrow, Peter from Inkling is giving us a lift into the Royal Derby for my eye appointment. We'll lunch in town and do another burst of retail therapy before coming back on the bus. Hopefully I'll still be fit to blog after that...

Then, Friday it's off and away for the Macc and Poynton. We'll not leave there until late September as we're having the roof repainted in Cargo Grey. We should be back in Mercia in early October.

 

Wobbly start, great finish

It's been a very good day, overall, but tiring, so apologies if this post is a bit condensed! We actually had quite a bad night, not sure why. Dinner had been a bit late because we had a very good natter with Elanor after we'd run Sally, so we were a bit later to bed than usual. No problem with that, but Sheila had a restless night and I started another spell of labyrinthitis so felt very unsettled.

My dizziness persisted into the morning. Sheila volunteered to go and let the Ocado driver in, who promptly gave us very short notice. Sheila bombed round there but, before she made it, the driver had been let in by someone else. Fortunately he'd already phoned me again so I was able to give him the directions to find Block 3.

The order was mostly ok, except for a few bruised apples. I managed to eat some lunch despite feeling a bit yucky with the dizziness and had a doze afterwards which helped a great deal. I should have mentioned that the weather has been glorious all day. Jo was volocking at Stenson and we took a walk along there, the longest Sheila has done since her op. That was very pleasant indeed, especially as we rewarded ourselves with ice cream from the cafe.

Back at the marina, we called in at the office and collected a load of parcels, socks for me, a new electronic scale for the galley, a cigar lighter to USB charging socket and the surprise prizes for the Owners' Weekend Quiz, hee, hee.

On our way back, whom should we see but Ann and Iain on Kelpie just arriving at the marina to shop at Midland Chandlers. We popped down and had a natter with them, including apologising for telling them that they could get food at the Rising Sun in Willington, where apparently they were told that food hadn't been available there for five years. This is very odd, as I distinctly recall an excellent Thai meal in that pub 18 months ago...

Heigh ho, one of those little mysteries. We're looking forward to a quiet weekend. If this weather holds, we should get some varnishing done at last.

Not a day for boating

We have a couple of days in hand and the weather forecast for today was extremely discouraging, so we've treated ourselves to a lazy day on the towpath, just as if we were still continuous cruisers. As it turned out, if we hadn't been keeping tabs on the forecast, we might well have been deceived. It was a pleasant morning at first, sunny intervals, not much wind, just the threat of a shower.

But the rain arrived from ten o'clock on and the wind steadily built up until it was really very unpleasant out there. I did make an expedition to the marina to dump a bag of rubbish and to get bread and some more kindling from the shop. They didn't have fresh bread in yet when I went, and I certainly wasn't going to go back later, so it will be part bakeds tomorrow. I'm hoping that the skin on the back of my hands will get a move on and do its moulting soon so that I can restart baking.

I lit the fire quite early on and have frankly been loafing about rather since. Sheila has been much more virtuous (not an unusual situation) and did a lot of finance stuff, bank and credit card reconciliation and the like.

I have exchanged emails with sister Jane in the States; she reckons that she'll be able to pay that dollar check into her account if I endorse it, so I'll get that off in the post to her when we get to Alrewas. One bright spot in the day, at least. Another was having a quick chat with fellow blogger Geoff on Seyella as they came past; it's been a while since our paths crossed.

After lunch I ran the engine for quite a while. The batteries were still drawing 7.5 amps when the SmartGauge said they were full; another decent run tomorrow should sort them. Elanor and Sally are coming over later, Elanor bringing one last lot of cheap chicken. She'll have finished her assignment in Ashbourne by the time we get back, I expect.

Tomorrow, we'll make a prompt start and boat to Branston Water Park, stopping off at Shobnall to dump the old oil that's been lurking about in the well deck ever since I changed it last October.

 

Escape!

It was a day when we wanted to get quite a lot done and the good bit is that we've managed it. We made an early start so that Sheila could get another wash load on and then make a start on polishing the boat. Indeed, she was doing this last by half seven.

I took yesterday's last wash load to tumble and then got on with a variety of support jobs, including hand buffing the bits the mains polisher won't do. In the event, I then started working along the open areas just to keep busy, it being too early to use power tools. In fact, I got so far with this that in the end there was no point in rigging the polisher.

Sheila was worried that she was going to run out of the Craftmaster carnauba wax we use, so at nine I popped into Midland Chandlers and got some of the Bullet carnauba that they stock in case she did. In the event, she managed to finish the whole side with what she had; the Bullet will come in handy for doing the well deck bulkheads.

Not long after ten we got the call from Fasil, today's Ocado driver. He was already at the gate, so had to wait whilst I walked round to him. It was a mega order so that the cupboards were very full by the time we'd stowed it all away. After a bit of a sit down to recover, I finished off the buffing before we had lunch. This meant that we could leave the marina whenever we wanted to in the afternoon.

After a quick call into Still Waters to get some fresh veg, we got going just after two. The marina was buzzing both with visitors to the Boardwalk and with boats coming and going. I don't think I've ever had to give way to five boats whilst manoeuvring before, including one coming in whilst we waited between the tunnel and the canal entry.

I manage the turn out reasonably smoothly, though the bow did touch the opposite bank at one point. We tied by Sally's favourite copse; we'll be able to walk back to Potlock's Bridge and across the field to the bus stop in the morning. Elanor and Sal came across for the afternoon; Sal had a good run in the copse and a bit of a swim in the pools. There was a fair bit of litter around, empty cans mostly, so Elanor and I gloved up and cleared it all into a black plastic sack.

Elanor has now taken that off with her to drop into a skip in the marina on her way back to the car.

We're looking forward to a quiet evening with maybe a bit of wine to celebrate our escape; it's been seven months this time and though the marina is lovely, it is so good to be out and soon to be on our travels again.

We're out!

Today went more or less as planned, despite the fact that Sheila has succumbed to a tedious head cold that's keeping her snuffling, sneezing and blowing. So far, I seem to have escaped it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The only change from yesterday's intentions was that we decided not to bother getting a new gas cylinder yet. It would have meant waiting until Michael in the shop could get away to get us one, and as we've not long changed over, we can wait for it until we get to Poynton.

We were up betimes, and away just a bit before half eight. Unusually, the engine was reluctant to start, firing on just one or two cylinders at the first couple of attempts, but then blazing away OK. There must have been some condensation in the cylinders or something, I guess, or maybe the glow plugs hadn't heated up properly after sitting unused during the big freeze. I certainly had no further problems restarting during the day.

We found Robert the manager on the service wharf already; he was changing the notices on the pumps, the price of diesel having gone up to 95 ppl for domestic. This was a bit of an ouch, as we took 159 litres, 20% at propulsion rate. We also pumped out, and I went into Midland Chandlers and bought two 25 kg bags of Homefire. They were pricey too, £15 per bag before the discount, so I'm glad I settled for just the two. Again, that's enough to get us up to Poynton, hopefully, together with the bag of Supertherm that I bought yesterday.

Getting out of the marina was a bit better than last time; I managed to keep Sanity Again over to the right as we came out, so that there was more room to swing the stern earlier, but Sheila still had to hop off onto the towpath to pull the bow round.

We've tied on the visitor moorings in Willington. A trip to the Co-op was made before lunch, buying stuff to keep us going until we get to Alrewas for meat from Coates, and to Rugeley for general supplies.

It's been a very good winter, and has felt quite short, but we're very glad to be out and about again. Oh, and one positive from this afternoon: the dehumidifier tucked away under the bed standing upright, so we won't have to worry about letting it stand for 24 hours before using it next time.

Last day out for a bit

We've had a quiet day here in Willington, though it started early, body clocks not yet having adjusted to the changed time. We got a bit of shopping in at the Co-op, and otherwise have been lurking on board, dealing with emails and the like.

One item was the latest BW Boater's Update; nothing much new, frankly, I seem to have read it all already in other places, but I was struck by this encomium about the Canal & River Trust's new logo:

In the same way, the Canal & River Trust’s magnificent swan evokes serenity, protectiveness and much more in people’s minds. From the research and the reaction we know that it resonates well with the general public.

Now, to an extent all this is true, in the sense that this is indeed the myth that surounds the mute swan. I'm very happy to see them around, but anyone who has much to do with them knows that they are great, bullying, stroppy, murderous beasts, quite capable of demanding bread with menaces and of driving away any competition.

In the spring, the males or cobs have been known to drown an entire brood of ducklings to make sure that their own offspring get first crack at the grub.

There's a moral in there somewhere, as the Red Queen keeps saying in Alice in Wonderland. When she's not shouting "Off with his head" of course.

Tomorrow, into the marina...

What time is it?

It's not often one can say "Earlier than you think", but for those of us in the UK, that's true today. We switched from Summer Time to GMT at 2 this morning, so if you are reading this at your desk on Monday morning and wondering where everyone else is, that's the explanation.

/nobigdeal

Best example of the confusion that the old "Spring forward, Fall back" rule can cause was evident this morning in the Co-op. Visiting it to buy guess what, I also decided to get four cans of Bass to keep the supplies going until we can get an Ocado delivery in. This meant that we had to wait a couple of minutes at the till until it was ten o'clock, as they are not allowed to sell booze before then on a Sunday.

Whilst we did so, another gent came through and expressed surprise: "It's nearly twelve o'clock" he said.

Er no, I think you may have just moved yourself onto Moscow time there…

Best bit of the day was visiting the marina, where we had a cheerful encounter with the guy in the office to do the paperwork, producing our insurance cert and Declaration of Conformity, paying the balance of the bill and so on. We also got our radio key fobs to get in through the gate into the mooring area; no remembering pin codes here.

We took another look at where we are to moor, and were impressed all over again. On the way back, we had another natter with Stephen and Jayne; Dolce Far Niente is tied just a bit in front of us.

Since lunch, we've been chilling out with the paper and stuff. It'll be another quiet day tomorrow, then on Tuesday we move into the marina, stopping for diesel and a pump out on the way.

We're also dog sitting that day, so could be interesting...

Busy, busy

Having got ourselves sorted at Willington, we had a busy day with the family today. Elanor came over and collected us midday, and we rendezvoused with Graeme, Cathy and the boys in the centre of Burton. Amazingly, it all went fine, given that the other half had driven up from North London that morning.

We had a great session at the photographers; she turned out to be a really nice old dear, who was excellent at getting the boys to pose. We'll be going back next Saturday to choose which prints we want.

Since that will be the acid test, I won't plug the name just yet; watch this space.

Then we all went back to Sanity Again for refreshments and stuff, and I was presented with a belated birthday present from the Lincoln branch of the clan in the form of a bottle of 12 year old Bowmore. Yum.

After all this excitement, I'm pretty knackered, frankly, so will leave it at that for now...

On to Burton, then Willington

It was another A-team day, when the plan came together in a very gratifying way. We got up in good time and arrived at Shobnall just before nine. Into Cooper's Square we went, and chose some frames for new glasses at Vision Express. Then came the painful bit, agreeing what lenses we needed and which arm and leg were going to have to go to pay for them…

We're getting two pairs each, of which the simpler ones will be ready by Wednesday (they couldn't do them in the spot, the machine had broken down) and the varifocals will take a week or so longer. After giving the credit card a fright, we went back to Shobnall where we bought some more kindling and four bags of mixed ovals to keep us going until we get into Mercia.

By now it was after eleven, so we set off for the last stretch to Willington, lunching on the way. In fact, Sheila was in the middle of hers when we arrived, to find the moorings incredibly busy. We've ended up just off the end of the visitor moorings. Initially, we had a rather grotty bit of towpath to tie on, and indeed I took a tumble getting off the bow; it had drifted out, so I made a big jump, put my foot down a hole and fell flat on my face, skidding briefly along still clutching the whirligig support pole I'd been fetching.

The good news is that the pole was undamaged, and I'd been planning to put that hoodie and pair of trousers out for the wash anyway. A bit later, the boat in front left, and we were able to pull forward onto a better bit of towpath.

Once we were all sorted, we popped back along the moorings for a good old natter with Ivor Batchelor, who's swapped his working pair, Mountbatten and Jellicoe for a single motor, in fact a butty converted into a motor, Lepus. The pair are up for sale on Apollo Duck.

Ivor's no longer trading in coal, but Mel is still painting and selling canalware.

Tomorrow, we're having a family get together; Elanor has a free voucher for one of the Burton photographers, so Graeme, Cathy and the boys are coming over and we're all going to get our photies took.

Here I am again!

Well, I'm back in the world of Sanity Again, slightly earlier than anticipated, but glad to be here. As told over on Shobnall Fields Forever, we decided to leave the Festival site a bit earlier than planned. This was mainly because under Ali Moore's brilliant organisation, the wrgies didn't have that much more to do, and as we weren't desperately popular with some of the blue shirts, we thought it might be more comfortable if we just got out of it.

The original plan had been to back up from the Festival site to the junction with the old Bond End canal, now the entrance to Shobnall Marina, get a pump out there, wind and carry on towards Alrewas and points west. However, with an extra few days to play with, and since the poo tank wasn't as full as we'd been expecting, we've come on to Willington instead.

It was a very pleasant run yesterday, and we had a relaxing afternoon loafing on the bow, reading the Independent (me) or one of the books we bought from wrg nw (Sheila). In the evening, we went and had a meal at the refurbished Dragon (formerly the Green Dragon). It was very good, good choice of real ale, though they were struggling to keep it star bright in the muggy weather, and tasty food at a decent price.

Today, we've been a bit busier. Sheila washed the roof this morning, then we went on to wash the starboard side. Just a plain water rinse off this time, to get rid of the dust and muddy streaks. Next month, it will need the full monte to get her ready for the Braidbar Open Day and Owners' Weekend.

After lunch, Elanor popped over and took us shopping in the Burton town centre Sainsbury's, so the wine cellar is full again, after very nearly running out.

Tomorrow, we'll wind and head back, probably stopping in Branston for a couple of days, then slowly onwards. We're dog sitting for both of the next two weekends, and Graeme, Cathy and the boys hope to join us for  few days at the end of next week.

To Willington

We'd thought when planning this trip that we'd stop at Shobnall Marina for diesel, but the bright sunny weather means that the solar panel has been earning its keep, and we've not used quite enough fuel charging the batteries. The thing is, Shobnall only offers a decent price if you take more than 100 litres, so it's a good idea to have plenty of room in the tank before stopping there. In addition, it's a bit of a pain turning into the arm to get fuel, so on balance we decided not.

We'd also thought about going to the Marston's Brewery shop for some beer for me, but they don't open until ten, so it all looked too much of a hassle.

Checking Sue's Diesel Splits webpage, I see that Sawley is described as "yes but need to negotiate" whereas Sileby Mill gets a straightforward yes. With more than half a tankful, I think we'll go for Sileby. Similarly, Elanor has asked us to dogsit for a weekend later this month, so I reckon it might be possible to persuade her to bring a case of ale for me at the same time.

We've taken to keeping the small camera in the radio cubby hole, making it easier to take photos as we go, and so to add some to this blog. I got a couple of shots of the site of this year's IWA Festival as we went past:

The exhibition boats will be here, with the show behind them

Some overnight moorers further along;
not recommended at the weekend, usually

My captions assume the layout will be similar to 2004, but I haven't seen the plans as yet. Although a very pleasant place to stop during the day, and fine at night during the week, probably, the park does become the haunt of less desirable characters at the weekend, so we wouldn't choose to stop there then.

Once down Dallow Lane Lock, you're on a broad waterway, as witness this boat seen near Bridge 25:

Clinically obese narrowboat

These wide beam "narrowboats" always look to me as if they've been stood on, or that the designer brought a diagram of the cross section of a conventional narrowboat up on his screen, clicked and held a handle on one side of the frame and pulled it out sideways. If you want a wider boat, why not go for a proper barge shape, like a luxemotor or tjalk?

Willington was pretty busy when we got here, but we found a mooring with no trouble and have spent the afternoon pottering about. We bought some petunia and campanula plants from the flower shop, and Sheila has potted them up in a trough, so we've made a start on the summer flowers on the roof.

Noisy night, windy day, nice marina

After a reassuring visit to the clinic, I got back to the boat just as Elanor and Sally turned up. They hopped on board, and we set off in the direction of Willington. It's been a while since Sally was actually boating with us, and she thoroughly enjoyed it, standing on the bow locker shouting insults at the ducks and, when she saw other dogs on the towpath, sitting down with her nose in the air as we glided past.

They abandoned ship as we passed the Mill House pub, so that they could have a good walk back to Elanor's house, and we chugged on. We'd originally intended to get just out of the built up area, stopping at Egginton wharf, say, but it was a lovely afternoon for boating, with the forecast not nearly so good for today, so we decided to go a bit further, leaving ourselves less to do in poorer conditions.

We stopped near Bridge 25, by the big ex-gravel pit there; we've stopped there before, and it seemed like a good idea to do so again. With hindsight, we should have gone just a bit further on, through the bridge, despite the lure of the Armco on the Burton side (you have to use pins on the other side).

The mooring was affected by both the road noise from the A38, and the train noise from the Burton – Derby line. What's more, as the night went on, Sanity Again snuggled up to the bank a bit more and sat up on a rock, so that there was a grinding noise from below the stern all night.

It didn't encourage a good night's sleep, and we were glad when the dawn arrived. A quick chug took us on to Willington, where there was plenty of space on the 48 hour mooring. The original plan had been to reverse the route tomorrow, as Sheila has a clinic appointment in the afternoon, but with winds of 25mph gusting 48mph forecast, we're going to sit tight and get Elanor to provide a taxi service.

If things have calmed down by Friday, we'll go back to Branston then, probably.

Meantime, we took a walk to Mercia Marina this afternoon, since we had it in mind to spend next winter there. It is indeed a very nice place, and a moorer we spoke to in the laundry was very enthusiastic about it. The facilities look to be even better than Great Haywood, with the services blocks closer to the pontoons.

What's more, if we booked straight away, we'd get it at this year's prices, slightly less than we've just paid at Great Haywood, so that's what we did.

Still in recovery

4 September

We're at Willington on the T&M, on our leisurely way to the Braidbar Owners' Weekend. I'm trying to find the energy to restart the blog properly, but the National must have taken more out of me than I thought. Maybe tomorrow, when we should have reached at least Branston and a slightly better connection than the dead slow one here. What is it about Burton on Trent and mobile internet?

Many thanks to those who've welcomed me back!

Heading for the National

10th & 11th August

After the meteorological splendours of the weekend, it was a damp start yesterday morning, although the rain was never very heavy. Since Sheila's sore eye, though improved, was not fully recovered after two weeks treatment, she again presented herself on the doorstep of the surgery at a quarter past eight.

Meantime, I made my way to the butchers and bought a stock of meat to see us through the next ten days or so, after which we will be being fed on the wrg camp. Back at the boat, I had just finished stowing the meat away in the freezer when Pat Barton's boat, Quercus, came past.

Pat was not, however, steering. Instead another blueshirt stalwart, Kevin, was on the back. I popped out to give him and his partner a hand down the lock and we had a brief exchange of news.

Whilst this was going on, Sheila came back from a successful consultation and we were soon able to set off in our turn. Since it was still before nine, the pharmacy was not yet open and we decided to get her prescription filled at the fancy new pharmacy in Branston village.

We stopped on the water point to fill up and then had another steady run down to the moorings at Branston Water Park, at which we arrived just a bit after twelve. As forecast, the weather remained damp and it became rather clammy as the morning went on, sufficiently so that we made ourselves mugs of instant soup to go with lunch.

In the afternoon, Sheila walked through to the village to get her new eye drops and the rest of the day was spent in the boat, opening the doors and side hatches during the brief periods of sun, and closing them again as the next burst of rain swept through.

We managed to get some catching up done and the Braidbar Owners' quiz is very nearly complete.

The weather today began rather cloudy but improved steadily as the day went on, and as I write this it's gloriously sunny. We timed our departure from Branston to arrive on the Morrison's mooring just after eight, and by nine were back on the boat laden down with supplies. Then it was on to Shobnall Marina, where we got diesel and a pump out and I obtained a refund on the fuel filter. They had managed to obtain an engine alternator drive belt for me for the reasonable price of £5.75.

There was another brief scrum as Sheila reversed Sanity out of the marina, made more interesting by the fact that the crew of the hire boat waiting to come in didn't understand that Sanity needed to be well clear of the turning area before they could swing their boat round to slot it in under the towpath bridge.

We crossed with Ami Bovard at Dallow Lane Lock and then had a comparatively uneventful run to bridge 25. There was a good deal of traffic on the cut, mind you, and Sheila's boat handling skills were put to the test from time to time at bridge holes and narrows. Bridge 25 is about half way between Egginton Wharf and Willington and there is a useful length of piling just to the West of it, overlooking some gravel pits. Here we've spent a very relaxed afternoon sitting in the sun.

Tomorrow we will carry on to Swarkestone, probably with a brief pause at Willington to buy a paper and possibly some more bottles of red wine. We did so much other shopping at Morrisons we couldn't have carried any more back with us and we're down to our last two bottles.

Wandering on to Willington

13 July

I was going to say "Meandering on..." in recognition of the boat I saw yesterday called Meander which had the explanation "Me and her" underneath the name just in case you were slow on the uptake, but the route here from Swarkestone is not that bendy.

The T-mobile internet connection here is rubbish, though it was fine almost until we got here - must be the difference between Burton and Derby. I'll keep this short, and folks shouldn't be worried if I miss a day now and then for the next couple of weeks, as we know from experience that the connection will be trouble all the time we're near the home of bitter beer.

It was a very pleasant run on an idyllic summer's morning – lots of fluffy cloud around, but it only got seriously wet this afternoon, whilst we were out geocaching. Braidbar 42, Shiraz is here too, and we've had a couple of natters with them already.

We found three out of four caches we looked for, so not bad, but still frustrating to miss one.

Mr Millin: thank you for your comment yesterday, and I'm sorry I've not posted anything on the Building Sanity Again blog recently, but that's because there's not a lot going to happen until we meet Peter Mason again, probably at the end of this month or in early August. I'll maybe do a brief bit about the Megapulse discussion we've just had on the canals list when I next have a decent connection.

Meantime, demands like that from someone who has to get someone else to post his pictures of his own build is really a classic piece of chutzpah even by your standards. The fact that you've run out of design ideas for Phoenix is not my problem.

(For everyone else, you can tell Roger and I are good mates. Can't you? Hope so anyway, cause it's true.)

Tomorrow, on to Burton, and then probably on through either to the Morrison's mooring or Branston Water Park, see how we feel.