Friday 8th February 2019



It was a much better day today although cold, so we decided to carry onto Fradley Junction. At Streethay Wharf we stopped to try and buy some of the Epithanes red paint used on Bridge Street. It does not seem to be readily available and they did not stock it either. We did buy a gas cylinder as we had to change over last night.

We then passed under the thundering A38 before coming behind another boat that was travelling at no more than tick-over speed. Frustrating when you have to keep going into neutral because a boat ahead of you is barely moving. Each to their own.

At Fradley there is a water point just before the swing bridge that precedes the junction itself. The slow moving boat, who was travelling in company with another boat, blocked the landing for operation of the swing bridge while he waited to take on water. After some confusion, he opened the bridge for us.

And so we arrived at Fradley Junction, the junction between the Coventry Canal and the Trent and Mersey. We were last here on 24th August last year. Since then we have been on 6 different canals, traversed 3 of them, and 2 rivers, covered 426 miles at the rate of 1.5mph, operated 185 locks and the engine has ran for 292 hours.         

                                                      Swing Bridge before Fradley Junction and the Swan beyond                         
                                                                                    The Swan,Fradley Junction



There are five locks on the Trent and Mersey both sides of the junction, two one side and three the other. We wanted to reach the sanitary station that is one lock down. Fortunately, this lock was in use but we had to reverse down it so that we faced the correct direction for leaving and getting back on to the Coventry Canal. We had never done this manoeuvre before, reversing in to a lock. It went well but did seem very strange and, according to Brenda, looked it too.

At the sanitary station we dumped our rubbish and emptied the loo. This has been the first opportunity since leaving Atherstone 11 days ago and gives 20 miles with no facilities.



Once the business was done we crossed the canal and moored up. The Coventry Canal plaque was put on the side door before we adjourned to the Swan, the “Mucky Duck”, to celebrate the completion of another canal. The place was very busy as is its norm and we finished up sitting with an older guy who turned out to be a real character. He had the two of us laughing and was a good tonic for Brenda who has been feeling very down on and off mourning the loss of Peter.

In the evening we returned to the pub for our dinner.    

Overall Total: 349 locks; 759 miles; 32 tunnels; 8 Swing Bridges; 2 Boat Lifts; engine running hours 481.0


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