intrepid pony: frost sun and rain

our mooring overnight

turning onto the aqueduct

There was frost over night but the fire was still going in the morning.

When he prepared to leave our mooring the Captain had trouble with the gear control lever- it had seized up and he could barely move it. Instead of moving off he stripped down the controller and found the old grease had gone hard and sticky. He removed the gunk and re-greased with stern grease and reassembled the unit after a false start and much grunting. This is not going to help his shoulder!

getting brighter

Once we got moving it was sunny, and we crossed the aqueduct and cruised past fields filled with happy lambs. We were the only boat at Colwich lock which was strange as normally there is a long queue..

The clouds didn’t build up until we reached Great Hayward. The sky darkened as the boat rose in the lock. We moored up just after the lock and dived inside as the rain hammered down. Within thirty minutes it was bright and dry.

canalside cottages at Colwich

After lunch we cruised on enjoying the sunshine. We had a long wait at Hoo Mill lock waiting for a boat to come down. The crew only had one paddle half open but seemed happy to inch down.

Great Hayward lock ready to enter

We passed several swans nesting spaced at even intervals along the canal and passed several flotillas of ducklings.
One duckling got separated from the rest as our boat passed. It swam frantically in the same direction we were going but couldn’t cross the bow to rejoin his family. They meanwhile had stopped swimming and were waiting behind us. The duckling stopped trying to outrun us and turned around.
On seeing mother duck and the other nine ducklings he swam back quacking loudly. Was he saying mum I nearly got run over by a monster?

Spots of rain teased us at Weston lock but we moored up still dry.