The invisible helper

The morning started off hot, with blue sky. Fluffy clouds with some wind hinted the weather could change. By the time we cast off it had clouded over. While in Audlem top lock we had a heavy shower which stopped as we cruised round to the Adderley flight.

deep in a lock

As we climbed the five lock flight we faced a mixture of sun, cloud and a few spits of rain. We were helped by a boy from the boat in front, who opened the paddles for us after their boat left the first three locks so that had almost drained by the time I reached them. I never caught up with him so this is my chance to say thank you to my invisible helper.

Lottiecin the shade

After that we met boats coming down which slowed us slightly but halved my work. Thankfully Lottie left her bandage (and the wound it hid) alone so it seemed much better when I inspected it in our mooring at Market Drayton.

The Captain found the well known cheap supermarket and we filled the fridge.

The afternoon also saw sunshine and cloud but the wind was fiercer.

working boat

We followed a boat along the narrow cutting leading to our last flight of locks on the Shroppie. As we followed them up Tyreley locks we had to empty each lock, as did the boat behind us. Fortunately they let me go ahead and set the next lock. This turned out to be important as the shallow stone hewn cutting had no lock moorings. Thankful they had helped me I raised a paddle for them behind as the lock instructions told us not to leave the lock they were in before the lock ahead had been set, a fact they hadn’t known as the instructions were missing from the first lock.

After that we met boats coming down which lightened my workload and let the boat behind catch up when the lady working the lock thanked me for raising the paddle for her.

We moored up half an hour later for the night.