A very miserable start to the first day of our month's cruise to Chester and wherever. Dark grey skies, raining and that unpleasant Brinklow wind that we have grown used to. Brinklow Marina is quite exposed and lovely though the views of the surrounding countryside are, it is inevitable that if there is wind, it blows at Brinklow. Our aim was to reach Atherstone today as part of the plan to reach Chester on the 11th to enable me to get to Bangor and Caernarfon for a Welsh Highland Railway track inspection. Go or not go? Well it looked horrible, but after all its only rain and the canals are generally quite sheltered from the wind. So we went. Just as we about to leave a red light on the holding tank showed itself. To delay here would mean a wait until 10:00 am to get a token, so we went off anyway. Passing Rose Narrowboats base 45 minutes later we saw staff in attendance who were happy to do a pump out for us, so that problem solved. The downside was that they charged £20 for it. Now it was certainly a lovely pump out, done with love and care, rinsing the whole shebang, but hit the record as the most expensive ever. I am really going to have to get a bathroom logbook set up to get a handle on the unit cost of the toilet business (pun intended). Its looking like 50p for a big one and we could offer a discount if people wanted to club together over the little ones. Moving on, rain stopped about 10:00 and the afternoon brightened up but with the odd heavy short sharp shower and even a clap of thunder. We arrived at Atherstone almost exactly at the time the "Canalplan AC" computer planning software predicted. A bit of relaxation first, then a trial run of the technique for replacing the windgenerator stays with stainless wire. Supper was one Pat made earlier. A beef casserole washed down with the rest of the Cabernet Sauvignon that I started yesterday!
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