Only one very shallow lock today

Saturday 6th August 2016

Having arrived at Jannock on Friday evening, we awoke after a lovely peaceful night to glorious weather.

Observation of the day – ying & yang, plus and minus, positive & negative; so it’s innevitable that there is an opposite to the boater who rushes past moored boats with little regards for peas on knives, soup in laps, slack ropes or mooring pins in soft ground. As we set off, gathering speed to almost warp factor tick-over, we were yelled at in fluent fish wife to “Slow Down!” Any slower and we would have stayed level with her side hatch and we’d have been able to discuss Einstein’s laws of motion – if he had any. The gent pottering on the rear deck appologised for her stating that she shouts that at every boat that passes regardless.

We cruised North on a lovely summers morn, and it stayed that way all day. It’s how cruising should always be I reckon. At Ansty, a tree has fallen across the canal almost blocking passage, luckily we didn’t meet someone coming the other way.  G. got round Suttons Stop with a degree of elegance that didn’t hint at two boats in the basin waiting for the lock, a tricksy quarter wind, another boat coming South through the narrows and a pub-patio full of gongoozlers.

We stopped at Grace’s mooring and left gifts of a plant and beer for Terry and Christine. G and I had a discussion entitled “Coventry or the Ashby” and so G had the job of navigating around another tricksy corner onto the Ashby. Just as well there was no wind here as nb ‘Muppet’ had moored between the bridge and the junction reducing the manouvring area as well as the ability to see if anything was coming out of the junction.

At 2pm we decided that getting out of the sun was a healthy option and so we found a shady tree and pulled over to rest and cool down. G did not fancy a siesta and so did a little paint damage repairing before going off to do a car shuffle. It appears that our stern has taken a hefty clout from another boat whilst Jannock has been moored up somewhere in the last couple of weeks and a large chunk of paint had become detatched from the steel. G said that speeding along at 30mph on the Di Blasi was a good way to keep cool.

Then on towards Hinkley, however we moored for the night, out in the sticks between bridges 11 and 12, before we got there. A dinner of Chicken Tioli (Take It Or Leave It) was taken in the front well seated at Jannock’s cratch table.

Brenda