Day 33 - Wednesday August 2nd - Stone to Fradley
22 miles 2 furlongs, 9 locks, 9 hours 35 minutes
Leisurely start this morning, 8.20am. Met boats at Aston Standon and
Weston locks, but found a bit of a queue at the next one (Hoo Mill).
Amazingly there was no queue at all at Haywood lock, but Colwich lock
made up for that. :-) The exhaust system has been cleaning up nicely,
still a bit of smoke but I can wind the engine up more than I could last
week and still see where I'm going! I was chugging along nicely,
minding my own business on the approach to the right hand bend before
the River Trent Aqueduct just before Rugeley, when suddenly this boat
appeared reversing across the cut in front of me. He was obviously
winding in the winding hole there, but I never saw him go in. A fairly
stiff bit of stopping was required to avoid clouting him, but I got
absolutely no acknowledgement from them at all. Ended up following him
all the way through Rugeley before he got away a bit. Caught up with
him again at Wood End lock though, so he can't have been that far ahead.
Through the first two of the Fradley flight of five, arriving at the
junction at 5.55pm, just as it started to spit with rain. Unfortunately
no one was there to witness my virtuoso performance with the Swing
Bridge, didn't even knock the engine out of forward. There is quite a
long channel leading up to the bridge, so I was able to leave the boat
chugging towards the bridge. Nip up to the bridge a bit smartish, open
the bridge and get back on the boat. As the back of the boat came
through the bridge I grabbed the railings on the bridge and was able to
give it just the right amount of shove for it to close without bouncing
open again. moored up along the right about a dozen boats down, just as
the rain started in earnest. Showered and went to the pub to eat, drink
and be merry. Spent the evening chatting with various other boaters.
Weather - Overcast, Rain later
Tomorrow's Forecast - Sunny Intervals
Terry Streeter
NB Arun - Fradley
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/
