This morning when we left Brewood the sun was out, by the time we had got under bridge 13 (all of 5mins cruising) we had donned fleeces to cover the body warmers, it was blooming chilly like an autumn morning if it carries on like this I will have to hunt out the hats and gloves. Had an uneventful journey to Autherly junction although the canal was very shallow in places. Once onto the Staffs and Worcester we made better headway until that is we got to bridge 67 where it is very narrow. A boat coming through told us there was another boat behind him, we were expecting the boat to appear about 5 minutes later but no, it was nearly 15, by this time a queue had formed behind us. Needless to say we had run aground during the wait so had to give the engine a bit of welly to get us going again.
As we got in to the narrow we had a nb Ellen moment and seemed to be going backwards and it didn't matter how much throttle we used we couldn't pick up speed so we had to crawl along with the frustration showing on the boats behind us. Paul just assumed it was shallow so we went along just above tick over and every one behind us had to put up with it. Once out in the open we let the boats pass us as by now Paul had changed his mind and was of the opinion that there was something round the prop. Into the side we went and with me holding the boat on the centre rope it was into the depths of the weed hatch. A few minutes later Paul appeared with a “Roy Cropper” shopping bag that had been tangled round the prop, no wonder we weren't making any head way. After this we sailed along at tick over and actually moved water.
So now we are moored at Coven near the Fox and Anchor pub, the sun is shining and we have been able to shed both the fleeces and the body warmers we have even got the chairs out.
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