May 6

The weather certainly had to catch up with me at some point… Monday, I braved the wind and showers to tour south to Polesworth, where I had a nice sheltered mooring, but had to use stakes. Two high-speed hire boats passed, both my mooring stakes pulled out and I was adrift in the center of the canal. Re-moored, this time with doubled stakes… Was able to ring on their older 8 bells, so the day ended well. Yesterday was so windy and squally rain that I felt it would really not be a good idea to attempt a flight of locks, so after just a short excursion, and crabbing down the canal sort of sideways, I moored up in the shelter of some nice hedgerows.

Today, through the Atherstone 11 locks, which wasn’t too bad despite the wind and rain (met lots of boats and only 2 locks set against me, so was quick work). Then south some more, past the junction with the Ashby Canal, and mooring again in a sheltered spot near Bedworth that I have used before. There was a pub here, now renovated into classy flats… Was going to ring here, but they had cancelled, so waited around until some teens showed up for their meeting, and it was clear there would be no ringing tonight. Still showery and gusty winds, but not like the 30 cm snow reported to me by my Alberta friends. The photos of their weather experiences are certainly more spectacular that the wind here.