Tally ho

As forecast, it's been very wet today, raining almost continuously, though not particularly heavily. Dipping the fuel tank confirmed that we needed diesel, so we waited about, doing things like topping up the water tank and dumping the rubbish, until the marina office was open. Indeed, we didn't want to dash straight over to the service wharf, as a huge Steve Foster crane was preparing to put a wide beam in the water.

They finished just after 9.15, and we boated across whilst they were finishing off. The tank took 100 litres, so it was indeed about half empty. After settling up, we emerged from the marina onto the canal. Sheila still had to tow the bow around a bit, but we're getting better at managing the slightly tricky exit which slants towards Stenson, that is exactly the wrong way for us.

It was Sheila's turn to steer, so I spent a good bit of the trip lurking down below, emerging only to provide look out at the blind bridge holes, and to work the two locks, Dallow Lane and Branston. At the first of these we crossed with a boat which had come down from Alrewas yesterday. They reported the river was just on the boundary between green and yellow, so hopefully it should still be navigable when we get there tomorrow. The Dove was very full, over its banks, as we crossed the aqueduct.

We stopped on the visitor moorings at Branston at 12.45, having kept ourselves going with mugs of soup in the meantime.

Experiment showed that the pin of my new tiller pin was a tad wider than the old one, and it refused to pass through the hole in the swan neck. I've drilled the hole out from 8 to 8.5 mm, and it fits just fine now, ready for my turn steering tomorrow.

I've passed another milestone today; the Sitemeter hit counter, which shows the total number of hits across the blogs and the old static website, has just passed 200,000 visits, over 358,000 page views. It's good to know as I type this that a few people out there are going to read it!

/blush