Day 10 - Monday July 10th - Alrewas to Curdworth 19 miles 7 furlongs, 16 locks, 10 hours 45 minutes
Reasonably prompt start at 7.00am, but not the earliest, at least two boats from in front of me had already set off towards the junction! Cleared Junction lock by 8.32am, and was round the corner and through the swingbridge by 8.35am. Drizzle set in by late morning, and I tied up in Hopwas for an abortive shopping expedition. Never did find the stores mentioned in Nich's. Set off again at 12.35, and stopped an hour later for water and Thetford emptying at the BW offices at Peel's Wharf. Turned right at the junction, and set off for the Curdworth flight. Just as I was nearly there, a boat on the landings started up his engine and went into the now ready lock. I tied up and wandered up to chat and help, and realized that I was looking at Julian's old boat Idleness. It was looking very smart, having recently had a complete repaint. Only changes were that "Idle Cruising Co" has now become "Idle Towage Co", and the home port is advertised as Barrow on Soar. It turned out that Idleness and another, single handed, boat were cruising in convoy. Idleness overtook the second boat at the second lock, and I helped him through. When I arrived at the third lock just as he was preparing to go in I decided to tie up at the Dog & Doublet to do some washing, and have a couple of pints and meal. I reckoned that by then they should have cleared the flight :-) I set off again at 7.00pm, and cleared the remaining eight locks in two hours. By the time I was at the top lock it had started to rain quite heavily, so I decided to moor after Curdworth tunnel. There were already three boats tied up by the bridge there, and I didn't want to moor behind them, as I would probably disturb them when I set off in the morning. Through the bridge, I found that there was nowhere to moor, as there were masses of reeds at the waters edge, and nowhere to get a boat in. When I did find a bit of a clearance, I found that Arun couldn't get closer than about ten feet from the bank. I ended up going through two more bridges before I found somewhere I could get the boat in reasonably close, and tied up as 9.40pm in heavy rain. Weather - Sunny Intervals, Rain later Forecast - Sunny Intervals Terry Streeter NB Arun - Curdworth ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/ygtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
