Relentless rain to Whittington

Tuesday 1^st October; Fradley pumping station to Whittington, bridge 80

Well I do believe the forecast was for a cloudy but dry day today, but it was wrong again.  We set off at about 10 in light drizzle.

It doesn’t look as though it was raining, but it certainly was

Dave thought he’d better walk Jess – she refuses to go inside to keep dry – and I picked them up just before Streethay Wharf.  I had to drop into neutral a couple of times to let leaves fall off the propeller - the bane of the Coventry in autumn. 

Fradley pumping station.  Only three photos today so I’m spacing them out a bit.

The rain continued, lightly but steadily, as we approached a moored boat that was clearly not tied up at the bow.  Tooting the horn and shouting produced no response – though there was a dog sitting on the kitchen counter!  We managed to get into the edge about 50 yards along.  I hung on to the centre line while Dave went back with the mallet, expecting the pins to have come out but they hadn’t – the bow rope had snapped.  He couldn’t pull the boat in without assistance - the boat was locked up - so we banged in pins to hold Bonjour, and went back with the boat hook.  We couldn’t pull it in with that either, so Dave had to go along the gunwales.  The rope had snapped, apparently at the T-stud over which it appeared to have been looped, as both ends were tied at the pins.  A very odd arrangement.  After I’d extricated the two halves of the rope there was enough length to throw one end to Dave and we could tie up properly.   On we went through Huddlesford.

Wet ducks

Fed up with the rain, and needing some milk, we stopped before the first bridge in Whittington.  It’s a little further to the shop here than from the bridge at the other end of the village, but we were unsure how much mooring or what tree cover there would be.  Rather than peel off my waterproofs then have to get them on again later, I went straight up to the shop.  Dave had put the Eber on for a bit so we could start drying hats, gloves and damp towels. After lunch we held a boaters’ conference and rather than carry on for another hour or two in the wet, we stayed put.  The boat was full of bits of towpath and dog hair, so Dave took Jess out for a decent walk while I cleaned through – though of course, they brought more towpath back in with them.  And the rain did stop for a bit so we could easily have gone on.  The internet signal might have been better too, it was practically non-existent where we were.  But we lit the fire and stayed dry instead.

We went barely three miles today.