And onto Blue Lias

Thursday 8th September

We left the Saltisford Arm following nb Uncle Mort. Between the two Cape locks there was a Willow Wren hireboat on very dodgy pins (they had not been banged in all the way and so the leverage action on the pins was not good for security) By the time U.M. had passed, nb Wagtail was fully adrift and floating across the canal. I managed to get onto the boat and grap the centre rope, I then pulled it back into the side but could not peg it back in as the pins had fallen into the canal. I pulled the boat onto the lock landing and tied it onto the bollards. We then left a note for the crew to expalin what had happened and continued on through the bottom lock. (when we met them again later they thanked us for rescuing their boat)

We continued on through Leamington to Radford Bottom lock where we started the ascent with a solo hire boat following us all the way to the Blue Lias. At Bascote locks, with both Uncle Mort and Jannock in a short pound and the next lock emptying, there were two tupperware moored on the lock landing. Brenda attempted to keep Jannock in the small space available but as the water flow moved her backwards she could not help but touch the back of one of them. A head appeared from within one of them muttering “sorry, I broke down!” She asked whether both boats had broken down “Yes, I am towing one and now both are broken!” came the reply – what a co-incidence, but looking at the state of both boats, it could be predicted. Both were light enough to be pulled into the longer and safer pound below the lower lock. That would have been better for all canal users.

We arrived at Blue Lias to find that we were the first Cutweb boats to arrive – this is a Jannock first as we usually arrive after most other boats. We pgged Jannock to the bank lust off the end of the mooring and then tied U.M. outside. I then went back to Alvecote on the Di Blasi to fetch our car before we went home to fetch all the rally things that we had left prepared at home.

Graham