44 Years, and no time off for good behaviour!

Yes, you guessed it, today is our wedding anniversary so we had a leisurely start to the day, with a cooked breakfast. I fitted the strings which Joy had bought me from Graham the fender maker and Joy fitted her new necklace from Worcester cathedral.

We moved off just after 9:30 and made steady, lock free, progress until we reached Gailey Wharf about two hours later, where we were told that Rodbaston Lock was out of action. The top gate had apparently been lifted off it’s hinge by a boat getting it’s twin fenders caught under part of the steel lockgate. We saw an unusual ‘flat fronted’ boat pass us before leaving this morning which may have been the culprit.

Pintle [pivot] which needs to go back under gate

Stop planks in position

Lock drained

We made our way down to Rodbaston where we were fifth in the queue and the C&RT team were out in force waiting for an A frame to lift the gate back on. Unfortunately the safety certificate of the first A frame which was sent, was out of date so they had to wait for another to arrive so we just settled down for an early lunch.

First boat through

Queue waiting to come up

A frame being taken away

By 15:40 the job was completed and boats were on the move, Viking Afloat from Gailey had two hire boats trapped down there and had sent cleaning crews down to prepare them for their new hirers. Whilst there we had been chatting to other boaters and had a discussion about whether we were named after the Wrens Nest council estate near Dudley (known locally as The Wrenner it seems) We were told some tales of ‘disappearing’ rental TV scams back in the seventies. Another conversation was about a good place to get a meal and we had two independent recommendations for the Cross Keys on the way into Atherstone.

It was our turn to go down the lock by half past four and with just Otherton Lock to go we were moored just past the Cross Keys by ten past six.

The Cross Keys was as good as recommended, it’s a proper friendly ‘local’ frequented by both regulars and passing boaters. A good deal of friendly banter was going on and there was good, honest home cooked food, simple but well done. I had a huge Lamb & Mint Suet Pudding served with chips, peas and gravy (no cheffy little jugs but a gravy boat full of it) Joy’s choice was Breaded Plaice which Catty was lucky to get a piece taken home for her as it was so good.

We came back to the boat in time to watch the Masterchef Final so full we struggled to stay awake to watch it!

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