Where are the Teapots?

 It was quiet over night, and of course the railways were on strike so there wasn't many trains passing either. The weather was nice so we decided that I would crack on with the sorting the port side boot topping. This took a couple of hours and then we got cleaned up and headed to the Tuppenhurst Barn for lunch. It can be accessed from between bridges 56 or 57, but a little closer to the towpath from 56. It was very pleasant sitting in the sun. Once back to the boat we decided to set off and see how far we got.

The sun was out filtering through the trees on the way to Woodend Lock. We were trickling along to prevent us catching up another boat who was obviously enjoying the weather.

As we approached the lock the cloud got thicker and the sun less bright, but it was still warm. I have said before how much I enjoy this stretch of canal.

The boat ahead of us had taken the lock of a boat that was coming up, and we had to wait for another boat coming up so we were more spread out. I notice that the teapots from the lock niches have gone. I wonder where they have ended up? Anybody know??

The H2S work is really picking up near Fradley now. The diggers are bringing earth in from somewhere and then it is being loaded into movers and seems to be taken to where the embankment is going to be to lift the railway over the canal.

This is the line of the rails crossing the canal and I wonder how high the embankment will be when we come back this way.

The gates at Shade House lock were open for us and we were soon through. We crossed with an old commercial boat between Shade House and Middle Lock. It seems though that he had just bludgeoned his way into the lock past a boat waiting for the other boat to leave. They were now waiting for us to drop down and as you can see there was another boat waiting to come up too. Very Little wind today so everything was pretty laid back.

I brought the boat into the swing bridge and as there was no room at the water points, and no other boats waiting I sat in the gut and took some rubbish, that we had picked up along our way, including a folding chair, to the bins down by the cafe. By the time I got back Helen had moved the boat through the bridge and was sitting on the water point as the boats who had been there had finished so she swapped with them. It would be rude not to top up as we were there. It only took about 10 minutes all told.

We kept on heading down the Coventry Canal, past Fradley village, and under the A38. I was surprised how many boats were still moving as to has just after 16:00 when we left Fradley Junction, but they seemed to keep on coming. Th ere was a nice reflection of Bridge 88 with Helen's favourite house in the area right by it.We were heading for the moorings near King's Orchard Marina. Fuel at Streethay Wharf were advertising fuel at 153p.

Once past Streethay Wharf we could see that there wee several boats moored up by the marina entrance so we stopped just before. On the offside is another site of HS2 working going on. It was quite noisy but they all finished at 17:30. I'm not sure when they will start up in the morning though, but never mind as we are awake by 06:30 normally. Mind you that isn't when we get up!

Once we were moored up I decided to finish off the port side. The sander I have been using is cordless and the battery runs out after about 40 mins. However it doesn't take too long to charge up and as the sun was shining earlier the sun did the job whilst we were at lunch. I finished it and got it all treated so sometime tomorrow, if it isn't raining I should be able to get a coat of primer on it. You never know we may have one side of the boat that is fairly presentable.