Tuesday 22nd May
A late start today, not leaving Star City before noon, we set off back down the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, we negotiated the three Minworth locks having a bit of trouble getting out of the middle one as the water level was low. There have been ongoing problems here since the embankment was repaired (read more here)
Just one visit to the weed hatch today, but we were glad to be approaching Curdworth and see open countryside around us.
We thought we might moor there but the only likely spot was occupied by fishermen so we carried on down eight of the locks to moor at The Dog & Doublet at Bodymoor Heath.
We had a well earned drink in their garden and looked at menu but they had run out of several choices and we weren’t inspired to order so cooked bacon, mushroom and pea risotto back on the boat.
We will probably stay here tomorrow too and have a ‘rest day’. It’s good to be able to boat at your own pace and have a day off when you want to.
Wednesday 23rd May
As planned we stayed put today, but a rest day it really was not as a Microsoft Windows update caused the laptop to crash and I spent several hours installing a backup.
The problem was described on The Register.
[Users] go through the three stages of installing this update: frustration, fury and despair.
The affected users report that after accepting the request to “restart and install” Windows 10 and waiting the requisite hour or so for the update do its stuff, users can find themselves staring at a blank desktop with no icons. An alarming message stating that the Desktop file could not be accessed is then shown.
Thursday 24th May
A short day travelling today as we left The Dog & Doublet and descended three locks. C&RT volunteers were about maintaining the flowerbeds, but helped us through the last lock.
It was then a straight run into Fazeley, skirting Kinsgbury Water-park and glimpsing the entrance to Drayton Manor through the trees.
We called into Fazeley Mill Marina for a pump-out, water & rubbish disposal, as it was a cooler morning, they had lit the stove in their office and it was very cosy in there.
Turning left at the junction we were soon moored up and after lunch we caught the Sapphire 110 bus which took us directly to Asda at Tamworth to get some groceries.
We’ll probably stay here for the weekend as rain is forecast, well ther is a Bank Holiday coming up!