Simon's Annual Service of MM.

 Saturday 15th June 2024 in Gailey.

Again, clear skies first thing but the rain soon followed.

R rigged up our very large fishing umbrella to keep Simon dry as he worked in the engine room. We did the same last year and it worked very efficiently.

Simon arrived late morning and, after he had finished the service, we had lunch and the chance to catch up with lots of boating talk.

Simon left at teatime and we decided to press on as the rain had stopped for now.

The first lock after Penkridge is Otherton Lock. This was one of the first locks that M saw close up and she can still remember looking down from this bridge with great trepidation, thinking "I'll never be able to go through something like that!" Now, 3,400 locks later, she actually enjoys working the locks.

This is Rodbaston Lock, right alongside the M6. We see it every time we go up the M6 to the north and, when we used to collect Eddie Stobart truck names, it was a great place to stop 0n MM to collect "Eddies" as they passed. Far too noisy to stay overnight though!

The next lock is "Boggs Lock" and just look at that sky! The rain came in bursts with a bit of sunshine in between - but still so cold for the middle of June.

Our progress had been slowed for a week or so by the fact that the large balance beam on "Brick Kiln Lock" had broken and it took the C&RT all that time to screw it back together with four large strips of angle iron and a dozen large bolts. You can clearly see the hole where the beam broke in two.

No moorings were available below Gailey Lock and its iconic "Round House" but, to our joy, our favourite spot was free at the far end of the visitors' moorings.

This is the exact same spot where we spent the first night on our first ever hired narrowboat "Emma", which we hired from Autherley Junction in 2010. That next morning, 14 years ago, we awoke to the magic of mist rising on the water, and we were hooked!

Today: 3 miles, 6 locks and 2.6 hours.

Trip: 31 miles, 33 locks and 21.3 hours.