Oh dear, not what we wanted to hear about the facilities. Now what?

 December 7th

Normally, staying on a secure mooring until after the storm blew over would have been a necessary evil, but a couple of issues made us decide to move. First it was directly under a tree and second, the constant drip, drip of water falling from the remaining leaves onto of the cabin top in the damp conditions, was enough to drive one insane! Could we stand another day and night of that especially as we were set for worsening conditions? Nop not a chance!  Ian was also concerned about the wind gusts bringing branches down so lying in bed this morning, a decision was made, go up the two locks to the long pound where we knew it was free of trees. Unfortunately, also nearer to the trains but much better that noise than the Chinese water torture from being under a tree.

A cup of tea drunk while we waited for the first light. In the distance was Atherstone bottom lock and the red of the sunrise told of the worsening things to come. 

 

As soon as it was light enough to see we were off, and creeping past Nb Bessie Surtees suddenly realised where I had seen the boat before. It had been on the Llangollen and by the facilities at the top of Hurleston locks. Owned by Barbara and husband, she had come over to see me to say she read the blog. Shame we hadn't realised it was them yesterday because it would have been nice to have had a longer chat. Anyway the lock was empty, never a wonder the way it leaked like a sieve.

At the second lock two gentlemen out for their morning constitutional helped Ian open the gates. So nice of them and they even closed the top gate after telling Ian to jump back on. We hadn't the heart to tell them this was as far as we would go.  Ian could have walked the short distance to today's mooring.

In the open.

 

So we awaited the storm, everything was battened down good and proper, those ties found at Farmer's Bridge locks came in handy to wrap around the pole and plank. Throughout the day the wind did pick up a bit and drizzle came and went periodically but nothing as bad as the met office had predicted. In fact, we could have continued up the flight and moored on the Atherstone town mooring after all. Never mind, I got all the Christmas cards written and Ian managed to get the cookers grill working. It's only taken him 2 months!

December 8th

What a night. Storm Barra had arrived with vengeance, only a day late!  Even watching telly with the sound up didn't drown out the noise. That roaring of the wind and the constant flapping of the cratch cover was bad enough, but even worse was the high-pitched squeal of the chimney cowl swinging as the gusts hit that wing. Made me cringe, it did. It was like nails being drawn across a blackboard and 'teeth on edge' came to mind. Ian went out with the WD40 to spray the hinge. It worked thank goodness. When we eventually departed for our bed, it seemed the wind strength had increased and the howling through the porthole window much louder. Sleep did come....eventually.

Awake before light, not the best nights sleep with Barra causing FS to rock quite a bit. Should we move today? That was the question we asked ourselves as we lay in bed. Initially it was no, the wind was too strong but then after breakfast, Ian walked up the flight to the town moorings, made a mental note that only three boats were moored and also 3 out of the 4 locks were empty. So long as every lock had its gates open so I could go straight in, I agreed to give it a go. 

Gosh, we were lucky. As I pushed the bow out against the wind and rushed back to the stern to put power on so I could get away from the bank, another boat came around the bend. Ian had already opened the gate and miracles of miracles, I got FS in unscathed!

Judging by my track record with the windy conditions and getting it wrong at bridge 'oles, Ian deciding to remove the cowl before I went through the next bridge was a wise move, methinks.

Normally Ian would go and lift a paddle for a following boat but in these gusty condition he had to abandon the idea. Apologies to that boat behind us.

Third lock and was that someone winding a paddle up? One thing I dreaded was for me to have to go onto the landing. Pinned by the wind, getting away would have been difficult. But no. it was CRT greasing the winding gear and strimming the lock side.

Was he really going to continue strimming while I was in the lock? It appeared so and I made it very plain by raising my voice that he should stop! "I was going to" he called back, hmm a bit late in doing so as there were grass cuttings all over FS’s cratch cover!

Anyway in the end, and while Ian had gone off to set the next lock, that CRT guy raised a paddle and then closed the gate after I had left. Before leaving though, a question was asked about when the elsan at Atherstone top lock would it be repaired. The answer was not what was expected because not only was that elsan out of action with no immediate plan for repair, but the elsan after that at Sutton stop was also out of action. How on earth were continues cruisers expected to cope when these two very necessary services could not be used. And where exactly could one empty the toilet cassettes now? Springwood Haven for a fee of £1, that's where!

Tomorrow we continue up the last 5 locks and head toward the Ashby. We will have to pay that £1 at Springwood Haven 'cos by then 2 of our cassettes will be in need of emptying.

And wildlife seen a couple of days ago,