Go or stay?

A boaters meeting this morning to decide whether to leave the quiet rural mooring or stay.  We need to be in Rugby on Friday for my annual maintenance appointments with the dentist and doctor.  In the end two factors led us to the decision to move.  The most important was the assessed availability of a mooring at Brownsover.  Being mid week there was a high probability of finding a vacant mooring, whereas on Friday the moorings might be occupied by local hire boats scheduled to return on Saturday morning.  The second factor was the condition of the pantry.

CRT had already sent an email warning about a vehicle in the canal at Bridge 44 and a boater who passed on Sunday suggested we also be careful of the overhanging trees on the opposite side.  As we approached the bridge we could see a small white sign.  The text was too small for our old eyes and we couldn’t read it until the bow was in the bridge hole.  It was a caution sign.  Fortunately the vehicle had already been removed.  The only sign of the incident were the wheel marks in the grass and the disturbed coping stones on the bridge approach.

You can see the small signs in the above photo.  One wonders how the driver managed to miss the bridge approach ending up in the canal?

It would be foolish to pass Armada Boatyard without taking advantage of their cheap diesel (58ppl).  We took 112 litres in the tank and containers.  Just as we were about to depart a working boat approached from the south.  It was Chelsey. 

A further two boats passed us in quick succession suggesting the moorings at Brownsover might be emptying.  Rather than continuing directly to Rugby we stopped at Newbold to top up the water tank.  This is where four more boats heading north passed by.  Whilst waiting for the tank to fill I happened to notice something wrong with the Newbold canal noticeboard.  The photo may be too small for you to see it.  

I have a thing about noticeboards.  They loose value when the information becomes dated.  The only CRT information on the board is the sticker adjacent to the ‘Visitor Information’ at the top.  All the other canal information has a British Waterways letterhead.  CRT was created in July 2012 so all the official information on this board is more than four years old.  Much of it is probably obsolete. 

To our surprise we arrived at Brownsover to find only three moored boats.  It’s nice when a plan works!