Saturday up early, horses sorted, packed, off the Fazeley to pick up boat and head back to Shardlow. We left Jans truck at Shardlow with the plan of leaving my car at Fareley until Tuesday, all organised, all going well? We arrived at Fazeley Mill Marina and set of down the 100 yrd long jetty to the boat. NO BOAT!!!! Panic!!! IT WAS ALL AN ELABORATE SCAM!! Then Jan spotted the boat moored on the other side of the marina. So we reloaded all our stuff back into the car and drove around to the other entrance and try again. The boat was tied to a rotting plank behind a large bank of brambles and nettles. Thirty minutes later, scratched and stung we manager to get to the boat and move it to the car. Another hour we are loaded, fueled and ready to go. Spot found her bed so all was ok with salty dog. We are off!!
The journey was relatively uneventful considering it was our first time on our own. This was helped by the lack of locks on the Birmingham Fazeley. After two sudden cloud bursts I remembered I had pack an umbrella! Managed not to hit anything and gradually grew in confidence over the day. By the time we reached Fradley Junction we were knackered mostly due to concentration rather than hard graft. We moored with about a quarter of our length on a water point but we had no strength to move and there was enough room for two 70ft boats so we staggered to the Swan had a couple of pints and stuffed gammon egg and chips down us and were in bed by 9:30.
More tomorrow
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