...and so ends Phase 1 of the 2013 tour

To update the past few days - well, the weather has been okay. There have been a few short showers and most of the time a cool breeze but when the wind drops it has felt warm and I'm sure I have a bit of a tan on my face. I have cruised about three hours each day, apart from when I reached Fradley Junction which was rammed with boats so I went through a further three locks and cruised for another hour. At Hopwas I went into the Tame Otter which was absolutely crammed with people so I popped over the bridge to the Red Lion and found a much more relaxing atmosphere. There, I was provided with a nice home cooked meal with friendly staff and clientele.

I noticed that my fan belt is very slack but at least it is still charging the batteries, so I will get someone to tighten it for me when I get back from my sojourn at home. I wish I could do it myself but it is awkwardly positioned and I haven't the strength to tighten it up. Today I stopped at Rugeley and found that there is a Morrisons very conveniently located to the canal. In fact, the town centre is only five minutes walk so a useful place for topping up supplies of all types.

I have a few family and friends events over the next week - three theatre visits, one cinema trip, one very special (first) birthday of my beautiful little granddaughter, a car MOT and, if time permits, some garden jobs.

Freezing hailstones

I have my revs back! The engineer had a quick look and found that the stop lever was not reseating itself appropriately and that was affecting the revs. It's great to have the whole range of speeds back again. Now I know what it is I shall be able to wiggle it should the problem recur. I cruised up to Atherstone and through 9 of the locks. They are a good flight of locks, I wish all the flights were as easy to handle.It's good cruising at this time of the year as there are not many boats around and, therefore, no one hassling you to hurry through the locks. It means that you notice more - hear the birds singing, watch the water levels changing, etc. Got caught in hailstorm number one but it didn't last long and the sun soon came out again. I had a late start today as I was listening to the radio and cleaning the fridge! Went through the last 2 Atherstone locks and then up to Polesworth. Got caught in a stinging hailstorm and it was freezing. I must put some gloves within reach for tomorrow. I went for a walk around Polesworth which looked very different from when I was here last year. At that time they had floods. I walked up to Pooley Country Park as I'd not done that before.

Several boards of poems have appeared telling a bit about the history of Polesworth, which includes coal mining, brick making, pottery and boat building.

Yesterday I got service on my phone, at last. Hurray. I spent quite a while catching up with everybody! I cruised up to Hawkesbury Junction where I moored last night.

I moved on to Hartshill today. Olivia is still running slow with low revs so I've asked an engineer to have a look tomorrow. I hope I haven't got to trade off low smoke emissions against low revs! Given a choice between the two, it would have to be low smoke. Here's my mooring:

It appears that I'm trying to race a train.

St George's Day

When I awoke this morning I found that the boat moored in front of me was dressed resplendent in St George's day bunting. It was a beautiful morning and this little fellow was having a lovely swim. I cruised up to Brinklow where the weather obviously went to my head as I washed the boat, cleaned the windows AND rubbed down the rust and applied rust converter. This is a very rare occurrence. I had a walk up to the site of the motte and bailey castle. I was moored behind my friend, Pete, so we had a drink and a catch up while enjoying this beautiful warm evening. Here's to many more of them.

Into Rugby to sort out my new phone

I got up early today and started through the locks before 9 o'clock! No one else was around so it was a nice chilled out experience. Olivia is still handling rather differently to how she did before her service, so I guess I'll just have to get used to it. I seem to have only three speeds: very slow, slow and just right (rather than the full range of speeds :-) ). I moored by the Tescos and walked in to the Clock Tower shopping centre to talk to Phones4u. They rang Vodafone and I think they have sorted out the problem which was to do with an incorrect SIM card number. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a network service on my smartphone. I returned to Olivia and moved on to a better mooring. The one by Tesco has a ledge which means that the boats can't get very close to the bank. Not much other news today so let's hope for something more exciting tomorrow.

Win some, lose some

This beautiful weekend I have cruised through 3 locks and covered 12 miles arriving at Hillmorton. My brand spanking newly serviced boat no longer seems to emit clouds of noxious black smoke (win some) but she now seems to have a top speed of about 3 miles an hour with the throttle fully open! (lose some) Also starting is not as good as I would expect (lose some). I'll give it another day and then I'll get back to the engineer, perhaps, she just needs a little adjustment. I also have a new smartphone acquired through Phones4u who seemed extremely helpful (win some). However, I got the internet on the new phone but still had calls and texts on my old phone so I contacted Vodafone who also seemed helpful (win some) saying I needed to send them my old and new SIM card numbers and all would be processed. I did this, waited another 24 hours and then got a message on my old phone saying registration had failed - and then curtailing my service! So now I have no phone/txt contact!! (lose some). So now I have also got to find a Phones4u and get them to sort it out!! Why is technology so blasted difficult these days. On a positive note I have a new dongle for the laptop and that does seem to be working STRAIGHT AWAY and, hence, a blog entry tonight. (win some). This morning I had a very nice, piping hot breakfast from the Gongoozler's Rest in Braunston (win some). I'm just having a count up and wins = 5 and loses = 3, so all in all life is good. Let's see what tomorrow brings :-). Here are some pictures from this weekend's cruising:

Ready for off (at last)

...and so it did warm up at last. Olivia has been serviced and when I pick her up at the weekend I will start out heading north. I have a rough plan which includes the Macclesfield, Rochdale and Leeds & Liverpool canals - all unknown territory to me. Over the past few weeks I have been visiting friends and family. I had a very chilly week at the South Downs with my cousin, this coinciding with a streaming cold(mine not hers)! Then I took my grandson (and my daughter) to the Harry Potter studio, the science museum and RAF museum at Hendon. They loved all the outings and, hopefully, Paris has taken on board some more knowledge as well as having some fun. I also caught up with my granddaughter who is almost one year old and is walking already - "handful alert" goes out to Tom and Gemma - you will need eyes in the back of your heads from now on. We had a fabulous day at Regent's Park - the first warm one of the year as far as I remember. I managed to fit in various cinema,gallery and theatre visits, too, in order to "top up" my culture:-). My next post should be from somewhere on the canal network heading up.....