Perfect Harmony: 26th April '11

So much for cunning plans.....

I slept in somewhat and so we didn't get off until nearly 10 this morning - the weather was cold, overcast and much windier than yesterday. We got to the lock and there was a short queue and then when we came out the boat before us had moored outside the pub - another boat was coming in leaving little room for manoeuver to get around the corner. Naturally the wind caught us as soon as we put our nose out onto the Coventry canal and we ended up with the nose in one bank and the stern on the other across the canal. I went up the front to push us off and had to climb out onto the rocks to get some purchase and promptly slipped a bit into the water - luckily only one leg up to mid-calf but in trying to climb onto the boat I managed to bash myself about a bit - nothing that some Arnica isn't putting right though! We got off the side and pulled away quite quickly after John came up the front and gave it another shove. We both wished we had gone through yesterday when a. the wind wasn't as bad and b. it was nothing like as busy. However hindsight is wonderful and it could have worked out differently.

Anyway we are now on the Coventry and have stopped at Nuneaton to find a wool shop - amazingly there was one and I was able to buy more stocks of green yarn for the blanket plus some other stuff I wanted for my Mum's (now very belated) birthday present! I can get on and do that now.

The weather has remained cold today but we are seeing more signs of celebrations for the Royal wedding on Friday - Union Jacks are well in evidence both on boats and in windows and gardens along the way. We are expecting to get to Willington at the weekend if all goes well - phew!

We have seen a mass of wonderful bluebells today - we have seen odd ones that are more like naturalised hyacinths but today there was a woodland grove completely blue - they are one of my most favourite flowers so I was very happy to see them.

Just before stopping we realised that we have lost the cowl from the top of the chimney - must have come off when we hit the bushes at the junction - another trip to the chandlers is in the offing I fancy.

We were going to get on to Atherstone today so that we were ready for the next lot of locks but we have moored up about 2 miles short of that as we were both cold. We are now sat inside with the radiators on feeling MUCH more cosy!

Here is the lock - I said it was shallow!

This is what it looks like from the other side - I am just taking the boat out after dropping all of a foot in height!

To give you a better idea of what we had to do the boat is currently travelling south and the water on the other side of this sign is where we are headed - to be travelling north!

At this point we realised it was going to be interesting - note the boat moored and the other one coming our way - this reduced our turning space by about 20' - quite a lot under the circumstances!

This is us going under the bridge - because of the other boats we were much further across that we would have chosen to be but it still looked possible!