Marston Junction

About half nine this morning a CRT chap walks by and said the locks are off. They needed to let water down so the boaters waiting may as well make use of it so opened early. We set off and were third up the locks behind yet another member of The Cutweb Internet Boat club, that was three of us moored in the same pound over night completely unplanned. The cottage at Lock 5 has a rather splendid Sun Flower, I would say it’s over 4Mt high. Once we were into the 5 top locks we were away with Volockies helping single handers and boats queuing to come down, often with one waiting in the pound above for us as well as one coming down in the next lock. This is normally bad practice as it wastes water, but today they needed to get excess water down the flight. By the time we cleared the top lock there had been 10 coming down.
In the winding hole above the lock flight for some reason someone has erected a stop, no sure why because its a dead end and the sign wont stop you hitting it, the buoys will which have made the winding hole even shorter, no chance winding a full length boat

We had been told about the buoys along the canal in front of the now flattened hat factory and this was what greeted us under Coleshill bridge.

The sign asks you to glide by but as we had to stop and wait for a boat already coming that was impossible. The reason for the dam is they are repairing the old factory foundations that run in the canal bed.

Further along yet another garden now has manikins residing in it.

This boat gives an indication of how much the Coventry summit is down along with all the Ashby.

Looking at the weir I would estimate it between 150 and 200mm. When you consider the pound is approximately 38 miles long its going to take a lot of water to bring it back up to the correct level.

There was no water coming in at the Anchor Bridge opposite the Anchor pub, there is normally a steady flow there and this was the level gauge.

A most unusual sit by Springwood Haven, this normally has at least half a dozen boats moored there, today just one at the very end near the bridge.

It amuses me the different items people put on top of their exhausts to jeep the rain out, I have seen everything from a Chamber Pot to a leather hat, this one had a stainless jug, we have a painted coffee tin.

Passing Boot Wharf I see there diesel price is very much in line with others now at £1-30 domestic price. As we left Nuneaton we passed the large Rhenus Logistics establishment and I noticed they had repaired the faulty glazing since we last were this way.

Time to look for a mooring for the night, we tried our usual spots but all were too shallow for us to get in so we carried on to just prior to Marston Junction

Today’s Journey9¾ miles with 5 locks in 5 hours