M Goes Home for a Night

Wednesday 30th September and Thursday 1st October at Hopwas.
The moon was still high in the sky first thing in the morning.

It was a lovely morning as we walked across the fields and along the road to Lichfield Trent Valley railway station.

The first stop after Lichfield Trent Valley is Lichfield City, just a few miles down the line, so R acccompanied M as far as City Station and spent the morning doing the tourist bit (i.e. Costa!!!) before catching the bus back to Streethay and walking back to the marina.
Yesterday, R had been down the weed hatch (again!) and noticed that the anode on the "nose" of the propellor had come off, exposing the nut that holds the propellor in place. He contacted Vetus, who supplied the prop shaft to check if they could provide a spare. To explain what had happened, he sent them a picture of the propellor (taken through the bottom of a pyrex dish!).

He was able to order the required spare part and have it sent to Braunston Marina to await our arrival next week.
On Thursday afternoon, R took the bus back into Lichfield, met M at City Station and we both took the train back to Lichfield Trent Valley, where we walked back across the fields to MM, who was now moored back on the canal outside the marina.

M said that it felt lovely to be back on board again.

The weather was absolutely glorious and we decided to cruise on south, in order to make the most of the sunshine.
We looked in astonishment at the barometer (a gift from Mary in America); we had never seen it so high before. Marvellous! The little bear is a souvenir from the recent wedding of Jon, who did the wonderful cabinet making on MM.

It was the most beautiful afternoon's cruising. All the bridges on this stretch of canal have names instead of numbers; Hademore Farm Bridge looked particularly charming in the evening sunshine.

We passed Huddlesford, where we had attended the "gathering" of historic boats two year ago.
The early evening sun cast a perfect shadow on the hedge of the two of us, the tiller and the taff rail.

Just before Hopwas, we finally moored up for the night.
Today: 4 miles, 0 locks and 1.7 hours.
Trip: 392 miles, 303 locks and 296.8 hours.