Shirley bound.

Hi Friends and Followers.

It was a cracking start to Monday morning, with a frost and mist on the water.

With not a breathe of wind the reflections were stunning.

We left our mooring at 8.50 am with no need to hurry. Once the sun came out it began to warm the air, but still chilly on the move.

My first job of the morning was to raise the lift bridge, but I struggled to raise lift bridge No.28, but having let it back down again it came up the 2nd time, I knew I should of had porridge for breakfast. We pulled into Swallow Cruisers and took on 205 litres (⅓ of a tankful) of diesel, and picked up 3 cans of engine oil. The yard was busy putting four boats back into the water and taking two boats out.

Having said "Thank you" to the guys at Swallow Cruisers and paying our bill, we carried on but both Keith and I could hear a strange noise coming from the engine room, which we had 1st noticed Saturday coming up the Lapworth locks. With It appearing to be getting worse, we pulled in at the second lift bridge to take a look, fortunately it was only the timing indicator rubbing against the flywheel, Keith must have leant on it whilst changing the oil and filter on the generator, this was a huge relief.

The rest of the mornings cruise was brightened by the sight of at least three Kingfishers a pair of Buzzards and life in general. It was not brightened however by the state of the towpaths, in many places they are dire. In the canal was a lot of branches and twigs from the recent storm Doris. It was easy to see why C&RT were so busy after the storm.

We are now moored by the winding hole north of Bridge No.10, near Shirley, at what is a fairly non-muddy towpath, which will be nice change.