Day two and Elaine took full control of the boat for the return journey to Brinklow.

Another great evening in the Greyhound tonight.

Today we set off to Hawkesbury Junction with Elaine on the tiller most of the way, then tonight its to the pub for a meal.

On our trip we passed Timmy Mallet on a hire boat from ABC Nunneaton.

Yesterday we cruised back to Brinklow and Elaine arrrived for a few days so popped into the village to see the Scarecrow Festivel.

Yesterday evening we left Brinklow and travelled to bridge 5 then this morning we moved on to Sutton Stop to meet Dianne and Peter for lunch.

Yesterday we took Claire and girls to Colchester to sort out the last parts of the school uniforms followed by a pub lunch.

Then in evening Ruby got her Birthday presents as she was seven years old yesterday. 

Saturday evening we had brother Ray around for dinner and then on the Sunday we had afamily BBQ around at Elaine's.

Yesterday we picked up Lynda and Dave and had a trip to Brightlingsea followed by a meal in the Ardleigh Crown

Hilary returned to Essex via Stanstead Airport  from Atherstone whilst I travelled on to Hawkesbury picking some Blackberries when Moored up.

Then on to the marina and then back to Braintree where tonight Ray has a Blackberry and Apple pie for dessert.

After Hilary having a haircut we travelled up the last five locks at Atherstone to moor at the top in preparation for Hilary to return to Braintree to pick up the car and then I will cruise on to the Marina.

The first picture was taken from Facebook this morning showing a lock problem between lock 8 - 9, we struggled with lack of water for the remaining locks until we reached lock 5 to moor up.

 

This morning we decided to move on to Atherstone but in the high heat of the morning.

Because of the hot weather we had a late start and moved on to just before Alvecote Marina ensuring we moored in the shade.

In my last post I said we were in Peels Wharf On the Coventry Canal where HS2 is making it's mark in a couple of places.

Whilst moored in Peels Wharf we upgraded the T.V. to aSmart one and thanks to Hilary's Stepsister giving us lift to get it back to the boat..

After many attempts Yvonne and Daves and our paths crossed and we managed to get together and enjoy an Indian Meal in Fazely.

Apart of yesterday's five hour journey was to pass through the single file former site of the Armitage or Plumb Pudding Tunnel which was opened up because of subsidence caused by coal mining.

We crossed over the Sow Aquaduct heading towards Tixall Wide which was full of moored boats due to being a weekend and the number of boats on the Staffs and Worcester 

We just managed to get a mooring as boat was leaving just as we were about to cruise past.