A lot of red flags about and a near miss.

 December 11th (Saturday)

 Hmm, woke up this morning feeling a bit under the weather. The throat was sore, I sneezed a lot and I sounded a bit croaky. The last thing I wanted now was to come down with Covid. Ian mentioned doing a lateral flow test, I agreed but said I would wait until we got to Shackerstone. I suppose it was fortuitous that we got 2 packets with 10 tests in each from Asda pharmacy before we left Langley Mill, 'just in case'.

Brr, it was cold this morning. Minus 1 was shown for Coventry and the surrounding areas so I wasn't surprised with the slight frost on the pontoon, but what did surprise me was ice on the canal! 

Setting off by 9 am in clear water it wasn't long before FS was sweeping sheets of thin ice out of the way. In fact all but the last mile of travel the crunching and crackling sound could be heard. Luckily there weren't many plastic cruisers moored. These I worry about when there are big shards of ice. Thick enough, it could go straight through their hull and I wouldn't want to think I had sunk a boat! Today the ice was thin so posed no threat,

No they hadn't got themselves iced in.

 Looks like Bosworth Battlefield moorings have been replaced as well. Many years ago there were steps leading down to the road on the offside and mooring was permitted. Not sure about now because the offside path looked a bit treacherous. Didn't seem to bother those boats though.

The sound of shots were heard in the distance, must still be shooting season for the game birds. In fact, I think closed season starts on the 1st February. We spied a red flag waving by the bridge, how nice of the chap to warn those shooting of our approach, after all we didn't fancy the repeat of the Llangollen episode! How wrong can one be! No...more were seen through the bridge 'ole waving and hollering and some with whistles. They were beaters flushing out the birds, and then there were the dogs, lots of them to do the same job no doubt. Not great news being a pheasant at this time of year.

It took a lot longer than expected to reach Shackerstone, so silted up were parts of this canal. One daren't move away from the center channel for fear of getting stuck! It was nice then to find deeper water as Shackerstone was approached and I could motor on a bit, short-lived though, when a canoeist came from around a bend.

One more bridge to go after this one.

 

 Then that boat moored on the towpath side, well I was flabbergasted when an oncoming boat made no attempt to move over. Plenty of room for both boats to pass, even with that boat by the towpath but still he came. It was Ian waving frantically at them to move over before the penny clicked and they duly obliged.

I couldn't have got any closer to the offside if I tried.

 We did miss, only just and not sure how. I had gone into reverse and he had swung the bow toward that boat. It was his the stern that would have made contact with FS, but I didn't feel any bump and he never mentioned it. Turns out it was a hire boat and a genuine mistake made by the pair. They thought I had stopped to allow them through, hmm, the water movement as I travelled forward should have told him differently. Anyway, no harm done and he did apologise. It all ended good naturedly. 

Then only one more bridge to do and nearly at the Shackerstone moorings and an aqueduct confronts you immediately after a sharp left-hand bend and here panic when another boat was seen coming. Oh eck...for me to stop as FS's was doing that turn was a nightmare. Reverse was deployed, I did stop but the bow of course, continued its path, straight in front of that boat. Thank goodness the other boater had his wits about him because he quickly made it known that I should continue forward as he started the reversed back.

Plenty of available moorings, a relief because this place is very popular in the summer. It was decided then to wind first before mooring. Not much of a breeze to hinder the turn and the rain still had not arrived so all we had to do was go through the next bridge where the winding hole was. In the distance a whistle was heard. Bosworth steam train was running today, I had thought it stopped for winter but I think they are running Christmas specials.

So the turn completed all that was left was to get moored.

Usually we share rings and would have pulled forward to that boat. The totem pole showed only 48 hour moorings toward the bridge and as we may well stay until Wednesday it was decided to stay back on the 14 day. Got moored just in time because for once the weather forecaster were almost spot on, well only out by 30 minutes! Tomorrow we meet our daughter and family so really looking forward to that. Oh and as to the lateral flow test taken this afternoon, it was negative. Just a plain old common cold and nothing much to worry about.

And wildlife

Pigeons, hundreds of them all on a farmers field. One of those bird scarers made this lot take off.