Date - 8 Nov 09 Day - Sunday Start - 10 30 Hinckley End - 1530 Ansty I woke up this morning and looked at the weather station, the atmospheric pressure was the highest its been all week, the symbol at the top showed sun, no cloud. I looked out of the port hole and it was chucking it down with rain, only one thing to do, stay in bed. We set off at 10 30 am. the sky was showing a bit of blue and the sun was taking the odd peep out from round the clouds but looking into the distance it looked quite hazy. Our first stop was Trinity Marina to fill up with 80 lts of diesel at 62.9 p/lt plus duty. Its a self service pump and you pay in the office. They have pre printed forms to fill in with your name and address, percentage split you are claiming on the duty split and if it is being used for heating, generator or boat. I always claim 50/50 because of the diesel cooking and heating. We carried onto Marston Junction where the Ashby Canal joins the Coventry Canal and turned left back to Hawkesbury Junction. There was a boat moored between the gauging lock and the junction and as I approached they unties but still stayed there, I thought they may be waiting for a boat to come out of the junction, but as I entered the gauging lock I could see that the junction was clear and just a tug and barge were entering the lock to go up the North Oxford, I indicated to the moored boat that I was intending to turn left into the junction and they waved me passed. As I passed I could see it was the community trip boat Hargreaves and the skipper said they were waiting for me to pass before turning round in the junction. I carried on round and Diana indicated that a boat was coming the other way into the lock so I pulled alongside the police station to give them a clear run out of the lock and round the junction. By now the Hargreaves had completed his turn, but as soon as the other boat had left, the Hargreaves reversed back into the junction again and turned round the other way again, I can only surmise that they were doing crew training and winding practice. Once clear of the lock I just had to negotiate the long bend with boats moored ether side, a wooden cruiser on my side and a narrow boat coming towards me, why he didn't just hold back until I was clear I don't know, I didn't touch the wooden boat but he ran round against the narrowboat moored on the outside of the bend. We carried on for another hour and moored for the night on the Ansty visitor moorings opposite the Rose and Castle pub at about 3 30 pm. The colours of the sunset as I write this are a very soft pinky yellow glow turning to a blueish purple higher in the sky.
You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian
