Sunday 30^th September. Fradley Junction to Willington – 14 mi 636 yd. The day started off overcast so we decided to put in a few miles today and make sure that we cleared the river section at Alrewas. That part of the journey proved not to be a problem. Yes, the river was running high and there was quite a current pulling at us past the weir but Polgara took it in her stride. (We do love our boat!) The bigger problem, well, not really a problem, more an annoyance, was that four hire boats were being recovered and other boaters were trying to make up for lost time. Consequently, at one lock we had a queue of about six boats trying to get through the lock. Then you get the genuine holiday maker in the middle who doesn’t really know how to work the locks yet and everything grinds to a halt. All the boaters were very good, helping out with the gates and paddles, trying to get things flowing smoothly. We reckon that the delays only added ½ an hour to our overall travelling time, so, can’t complain. One good point was that we got so fed up with sticking behind the same boats lock after lock that we stopped at The Bridge Inn (last mentioned on 4^th September when we sailed right past) for pizza and cannelloni – marvellous! Only one picture today and that was of the bridge before Alrewas.

We think that it was commissioned for the Queen’s Jubilee – it certainly looks a lot of fun! Also, forecast wrong again, no rain all day.

PS Looking back at the close of last night’s blog and the traffic – what traffic? We both went straight to sleep and were oblivious to any extraneous sounds that may have been going on around us.