A long day's boating (by our standards)

Elanor is joining us for a couple of nights, and Huddlesford is the best place to meet her as it has really handy car parking. We therefore had to put in some serious boating hours by our standards today, retracing in a single day the route that took us three days going out.

We got away at eight, on a day of blustery nor'-easterly winds that fairly made my eyes water. An earlier start would have been better, all else being equal, but we needed a pump out, and Fazeley Mill opens at nine. The timing worked out just right, and I'm pleased to report that I managed to reverse Sanity Again into the marina and onto the service wharf without too much hassle or even much under-the-breath imprecation.

We didn't need diesel yet, not at 92 ppl for domestic, so just had the pump out at £15.50. It's neither the best nor the worst in the world, but not as good as it was when Corinne was in charge. You get just the one rinse, and the tank gauge showed that a bit more could have been extracted with a little more trouble. Out we came again, pulling across the bows of a Viking Afloat boat waiting to come in, so I'm glad that the exit was as smooth as the entry.

The tail end of the Birmingham and Fazeley runs under a footbridge linking a housing estate on one side of the cut with Millfield Primary School on the other. As we approached, the entire school started to cross this bridge, waving Union Jacks and generally expressing a high level of glee. They were clearly celebrating tomorrow's wedding, and many of them were in appropriate costume.

To their delight, I gave them a double toot on the klaxon as we passed beneath them, and there was much waving all round.

We stopped on the last bit of mooring on the B&F, so that I could nip round to the Tesco Express for a bit of top up shopping. The whole town seemed to be lining the streets, and by the time I came out, the school procession was on its way down the road. Fazeley was clearly showing a substantial degree of monarchical loyalty, and having a great time in so doing.

We reached Whittington just on 12, so stopped for lunch, then boated on for the final 20 minutes run to Huddlesford. Des Barnard was busy on Farne, and popped round for a cup of coffee and a chat after we'd tied on the visitor moorings. Unlike previous years, these were largely empty, the crowd of lurkers which used to forgather here having moved on to the other side of the junction, where at least they are out of the way of the 48 hour moorings.

We gave Des a hand to move Farne across the cut and under the railway bridge, so that he could work on her offside, then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the bow, the wind having moderated and the sun come out, making for a pleasant if cool spring afternoon.