Wind chill factor

Day 2, Fradley to Burton
Day 3, Burton to Trent Lock

Oops, a bit of catching up to do. Sunday saw us take a leisurely dawdle to Burton on Trent, where we tied up on Shobnall Fields - a lovely mooring which we've never used before, other than to re-seat the rudder which I'd unshipped reversing onto a lock landing (lesson learnt - well, nearly; did the exact same thing a couple of years later on the Avon).

On Monday I needed to be at work, so I got the train from Burton to Sheffield on Sunday night and returned Monday teatime. The journey went very smoothly, which was nice.

And so to this morning. We set off decent early, just after seven, and made reasonable time, coming onto the Erewash at half past three. After two days of magnificent sunshine, the cold wind this morning came as a bit of a shock. Rather than shedding layers as the day went on, I was adding them, until I was up to five, including fleece and padded shirt. After lunch though this gas started to warm up a bit. From Stenson we shared the wide locks with Fair Megan, whose crew were very experienced and made it a very efficient and enjoyable process - until it was Jim's turn to steer half way through the day, and I really struggled with the next two locks - so Jim took over again in the interests of efficiency. This meant that I was at the tiller to take the turn onto the Erewash though and I really went for it - big sweep, lots of revs, and came in and stopped perfectly - albeit with shaky knees. We've tied up as we promised ourselves on the visitor moorings just above the lock, and at last the towpath has changed sides so Jim can polish the other side of the cabin :-)

Tomorrow we will be joined by a fellow member of the Foundation Year Network who works at Nottingham and lives near the Erewash at Ilkeston, and who was unwise enough to express an interest in the boat. He'll cycle down to meet us in the morning and travel up at least some of the way with us.

One further thing to note - Ricky is getting better at this boating lark. He still barks sometimes when we're doing locks, but much less than he used to; he's a lot happier than he was staying on the boat while Jim works a lock, and he's a lot calmer about being on the back end while we're both at the stern. So that's good too.

We might get to Langley Mill tomorrow, or we might stop along the way.