And so to Wightwick

It's been another very pleasant day's boating. It's only a couple of hours from the Bratch to Wightwick, so we didn't set off until half eight or so. It was still quite cool, but as the morning went on the early mist burnt off and the sun came out. Still, Sheila was glad of her fleece standing steering, though I didn't feel the need of one as I worked us up Awbridge, Ebbstree and Dimmingsdale locks. These three are close enough together to walk between, so I've had a reasonable amount of exercise.

It was then a short ride to our mooring at Wightwick. As last time we were here, we've stopped short of the official visitor moorings which are a bit close to a noisy road bridge. It means working the mooring chains down behind a heavy wooden waling rather than the usual crash barrier type stuff, but it's worth it.

We had a coffee and then Sheila put out today's batch of washing – the whirligig has fairly been earning its keep in this warm weather.

This afternoon, I made up some more descaler from the stock of concentrated phosphoric acid that lives in the engine hole and descaled the toilet and the kettle. I dilute the 80% stuff I bought on eBay by 10:1 to give an approximately 8% solution which is ideal for these jobs. Whilst I had the engine boards up, I took the opportunity to refill the stern greaser.

We've been taking it easy, otherwise, enjoying the summery conditions whilst they last. Current plans are to move on to Coven tomorrow, stopping to shop at Compton as we pass, spend two days there and two at Gailey before going on down to Penkridge.