The walk into the village for the paper was a bit windy with a few spots of rain. We set off at 08.30 and cruised through to Fradley going through some very heavy showers and the wind increased and was cold- aah a bank holiday weekend! Fradley is a classic junction in the middle of nowhere the only activity is the comings and goings on the canals. Today it was very busy, we just managed to get in before the swing bridge and then went for coffee(the cappuccino was excellent) and cake in the café on the site of the now closed BW carpenters workshops.
After refreshments we set off to find a mooring for the night. All was going well despite the wind until we had gone past Kings Bromley Wharf and emerged from the trees, we were now going across the wind. We also lost power due to something around the prop. We stopped so that I could go down the weed hatch to recover a large heavy duty plastic bag. By now the wind had blown us hard against the bank and despite many attempts plus the help of a fellow boater we could not get into the deeper water. After about 15 minutes the only solution was to reverse back about two hundred yards to the shelter of the trees and then power forward-success at last-all good fun.
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| There are not many moorings between Fradley and Handsacre. This is the view of our mooring tonight from bridge 56 |
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| Looking down the Fradley flight from bridge 52 with the Swan Inn on the left. |
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| The swing bridge on the Coventry canal just before the junction. We are moored on the left getting water |
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| We have just passed through the swing bridge and are turning left onto the Trent & Mersey Canal ( towards Great Haywood) in front of the Swan Inn. The right goes to Shardlow on the T&M. |
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| The bridge holes leading into the locks on the T&M don't half get smaller! |
