Tuesday 11th June; Jackson’s bridge no 26 to below Quoisley bridge no 25
It rained a lot overnight, and was still raining at 7 am, so we stayed in bed a bit longer. It was a well-chosen mooring, with no trees to drip on the roof all night long. By 8 the sun was shining on our little patch of mooring, though there was cloud all around.
After waiting for a couple more showers to blow through, we were on our way at about 10, in a chilly breeze. Several boats had already gone by downstream, with rather fewer going up so we knew the locks would probably all be against us - that is empty, needing to be filled before we could go down. The first lock was Povey’s, where there are wet meadows all around, and a soggy towpath too, with builders’ metal fencing panels and lengths of waste wood placed in the worst bits. Wet meadows usually mean interesting birds, and two lapwings were flying about for a while.
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| Those two white blobs are lapwings, honest! |
The next lock is Willeymoor, next to the Willeymoor Tavern with all the fancy teapots. I had a closer look at the one I had thought was Elvis, but on closer inspection I think it looks more like Roy Orbison. But wearing jeans, in the bath??
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| The King, or the Big O? |
Later on a Cetti’s warbler sang loudly in the hedge as I walked to Quoisley lock. Then it was decision time. Should we go on to Wrenbury this afternoon, or find a nice mooring and do some jobs instead? We spotted a lovely stretch between Quoisley and Steer bridges and decided to have lunch while we thought about it. In the end, as it was such a lovely sunny afternoon, we stayed put. Dave has been using a colour restorer on the black paintwork, which is beginning to show its age with some faded streaks now. One side has come up very well, but the other, which we think was probably facing south during lockdown so had more exposure, hasn’t come up so well, although it is better than it was. I spent the time cleaning through the boat, and defrosting the fridge so there is less to do when we go home in a couple of days time. We were having a cup of tea when a familiar and distinctive engine noise slowly approached.
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| Fuel boat Mountbatten on the way back downstream |
It is interesting to note that in spite of Mountbatten’s deep draught, Bonjour barely moved as she passed. How different from some boaters who seem to think that just dropping the revs a token amount as they pass your boat is quite enough, and send you rocking with their speed! Dave had painting to do too – the red on the cratch board, which now shows up the tired red bits on the bow flashes –
And then the heart on the sliding hatch. This is normally not seen, as it's where the life ring lives as we cruise.
We had cruised for less than 2 hours, but with the solar panels in full sun, the batteries stayed well topped up.
2½ miles, 3 locks
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