The outward trip:
So, think you have a plan? We did (short-term anyway) but, someone mentioned the ‘Mucky Duck’ having music and a good night out over the coming weekend sooo.... Julie wangled Monday off (swapped for Tuesday actually), went to GH and moored (after the obligatory logistical prep), to the pub last night to find out where is best to moor and dragged our butts up and under way by 8am! It was seriously misty so, headlight ON and full ahead (if slightly slower than intended) to Fradley Junction. It was so cold that the dogs were shivering on the roof (even with their hoodies on) so they were scooted indoors to help Julie make sausage / cheese butties and loadsa coffee...
The sun broke through by late morning and we had made it to Rugeley town centre by then - quick pit-stop at Tesco while the dogs stretched their legs on grass and I did running checks on the engine... figured out the trick of getting the washing machine running on the inverter with minimum fuss - add a kettle of boiling water to the first fill (reduces the work the heating element has to do to get the temp up to 30 deg C) to help raise the temperature of the water out of the tank... it works!!
Next stop was the Ash Tree water point on the edge of Rugely - all went well until Mozzer the Jack Russell (who is the most ‘at home’ on the roof and has tippy-toed deftly up there for the past 18 months) slipped, fell off as we were pulling in to tie up, hit the concrete toepath / bank and sploshed in between the bank and hull... we scooped him out almost before he had a chance to get wet and, although shaken, he seemed fine - muppet !!
Stopped for lunch on the far side of Handsacre then pushed on through the afternoon sunshine and Kings Bromley to the 3 locks at the top of Fradley Junction. The plan was to check out the mooring availability above the locks but preferably to reverse down the Coventry arm (just past the swing bridge and water points... Julie had walked on to check for a slot, came back to say OK and asked something while I was in mid-manoevre. I mistook what she said and ended up doing a 270 deg pirouette (well, 6 point turn) in the middle of the junction in-front of 20+ surprised and baffled locals and gongoozlers - the only saving grace being that I didn’t hit anything... we got to the mooring, got changed and hit the pub by 3pm... A successful, if not uneventful trip!!??Dog Section News:
The humans dragged us out to the pub again last night then, while it was still sleeping time, fed us (good), stuck us on the roof (cold) where we couldn’t see ducks or squirrels for the mist (no point), put us inside where we couldn’t see jack-shit, then back on the roof when the sun eventually decided to get-up...
Major Mozz mis-judged a reverse back summersault exit from the boat roof and went for a swim at one point but the humans put paid to that tout-suite. Still a good afternoon; 2 squirrels, 12 ducks, 2 swans and 1 rabbit spotted. Got dizzy from the last bit of the trip and then they dragged us into a different pub! Chief Ferry Officer Flo was so shattered she didn’t have the energy to yap at the last 2 passing dogs (got the even-cuterer-8-week-old-puppy in the pub though)- seems to be a contagious condition; all sleeping... over-and-out...
No comments:
Post a Comment