A bit dopey but still boating on

It was another early start this morning; we were quite bleary eyed as a result of a poor night’s sleep. No idea why, just one of those things, I guess. Anyhoo, we set out at half seven, aiming to get to Rugeley by around half eight, shop a bit and then be at the bank when it opened at nine.

This worked brilliantly; having stocked up with bread, paper and cucumber, we were at the door of the Nationwide at three minutes past the hour. Pity it’s Wednesday today. Like a lot of banks, Nationwide doesn’t open until half nine on a Wednesday. Staff training, you know.

/floor

Back to the boat we went, unloaded, checked out email and stuff and I popped back for half nine. To be fair, the staff training must be pretty good; courteous greeting, straight to a teller and I was out of there by 9.33.

One change is coming to Rugeley; a huge 24 hour Tesco is almost complete just on the other side of the canal from Morrisons.

Sheila was all ready to start cruising when I got back and off we went again, round the bit that really really benefits from having a look out. Apart from Armitage Tunnel, where the crew gets off and walks through first to stop boats trying to come through the narrow tunnel in the other direction, there are a succession of bridges and pinch points where forewarning of an approaching boat makes all the difference.

As always, Sheila managed the various manoeuvres required with aplomb, despite having been reading half the night. Her temper began to fray just a bit towards the end of her stint, near Kings Bromley. A small boat was pottering along in a very slow tickover ahead of us, keeping pace with the lady of the crew and two scatty spaniels walking the towpath.

For one thing, this woman was initially encouraging the dogs to jump in the water in front of Sanity Again, until Sheila was constrained to sound our klaxon. The thought of running a dog down is just horrible and a boat owner really should know better.

We’ve no problem with people taking their time along the cut, it’s what boating is all about, but it’s only considerate to look behind from time to time and wave through a boat that can’t go as slowly as yourself.

Fortunately they turned off into Kings Bromley marina.

I had part one of lunch (a Morrisons pasty) just before this, and then took over the helm for Sheila to do the same. She returned to steer down the locks whilst I waved a windlass about. We crossed with other boats at almost all of them, so the work was well shared.

There was a volunteer locky on at Junction Lock, a helpful chap even if he did leave a top paddle up whilst emptying the lock for the boat in front of us. (Whoops, been there, done that, haven’t we all? It’s so easy when you’re chatting and explaining something to get out of the routine.)

We’ve got a mooring below Junction for the night, towards the lower end where the mobile signals are useable. It’s meant that I’ve been able to donate the proceeds of the charity auction to the Anthony Nolan Trust, which is better off by over £1100 as a result.

We had planned to go all the way to Mercia tomorrow, but the forecast isn’t very good for the middle of the day; we may content ourselves with a run to Alrewas, getting there around 10 as the rain sets in, and then carry on to Mercia in the finer weather on Friday.