On the water again

Spent some days commissioning the college database I've been developing. Now we enter the phase reputedly used by Microsoft – let the actual users do the beta-testing! More excuse for me, I think, since this has basically been a one-man project. First indications are that it's going pretty well.

So – back to Erin Mae on Thursday, and then yesterday we started out down the Trent and Mersey for our Tuesday appointment at Mercia Marina to deal with the leaky window. It's been briliant boating weather. Today we got to new territory, running past the winding hole at Rugeley which was the furthest we'd previously been in this direction.

We followed NB Barnaby for a considerable part of this morning, and discovered it can be very useful to have another boat 200 yards in front when negotiating a tricky section. Looking at his behaviour indicated potential hazards – not much traffic today but you can guarantee what there is will be coming at you just as you hit a narrow section right before a bridge on a blind corner. It was especially helpful to have him in front as we went through the rocky, single file section that used to be Armitage tunnel, and has a bend just before the far end. He was able to tell the hire boat coming the other way that we were following, so my best beloved was saved the exercise of walking through ahead.

On to Fradley tonight, a famous junction where the Coventry canal meets the Trent and Mersey. What will we do this evening, now that I've already done a blog post for today? Probably iron out a few database glitches via the internet, and then there's the little matter of the Olympic hockey medals matches, if all this boating hasn't got me in a muddle as to which day it is today.