Sunday 17th November

We were woken rather rudely on Sunday morning as i had forgotten to switch my phone alarm off, scrabbling around in the half light trying to find where i'd put my phone down the night before, knocking over a glass of water in the process!
Oh what fun!
Eventually i found the accursed phone and silenced it and for a little while we all dozed, gradually waking and thinking of the journey to come. Only six miles but 8 locks to do including the six locks through Fradley which is usually a busy area.
Graham was stoking up the fire, whilst i climbed into some clothes before showing myself to the outside world.
The weather was dry, although a bit chilly.
Just before 9 Jenny arrived to lend us her car so's we could go into Lichfield to pick up some pills i had stupidly forgotten to bring with me, (i later found i hadn't forgotten them, they were in a different coat) - (sorry Jenny).  On returning from Lichfield we 3 had breakfast admirably cooked by Jacki, very yummy it was too.
After breakfast Graham returned the car to Jenny whilst i pottered around pumping out the bilges and generally preparing us for the off.
Once Graham returned, he and i set about starting the engine. This is a two man job.
The engine in Bracken is a 3 cylinder air cooled diesel. Now most older diesel engines have a glow-plug system to heat the air being drawn into the cylinders which assists the combustion of the diesel being injected into the cylinders and therefore fires it up so to speak... Bracken doesn't have a glow plug system (yet) so the way it works is one person holds a gas blow-lamp (the type plumbers use) pointing the flames into the air intake whilst another person turns the key to crank the engine over and hey presto the engine fires up in quite a short time of cranking!   I intend to try fitting a glow-plug system in the future..... Another job to do :) 
Once the engine was running smoothly we cast off and continued up the canal.


 


I was happy to see hardly any blue smoke as we continued on our journey so we left the engine hatch down which reduced the noise considerably  and made travelling so much more enjoyable. The peace and tranquillity of the canals is something to be savoured and enjoyed.

Jacki at the helm. Look at that concentration!

As we got nearer to Fradley the locks became more frequent so Graham and Jacki decided to do the locks between them leaving me to handle the boat. Our system worked well and we made steady progress, also, of course it meant there was virtually no walking involved for me :)
I still had my work cut out controlling the boat- boats dont stay still whilst in the lock. It would be nice if they did but they tend to get pushed backwards and forwards by the inrushing water so i was  constantly on the gear lever trying to hold the boat in one place.

Passing a line of moored boats.....SLOWLY dont want to upset the neighbours.

The workers, bless them!