Wolverhampton 21

Overnight was different - what the BW man had not told us was that the old Fellows Morton warehouse is occasionally used as a late night disco! He had thought that it was not on that night since no-one had been to set up but around 10:30 it kicked off and lasted -so Christine discovered - until well after 3:30 in the morning. We did see a police patrol around before midnight so assumed that there would not be too much trouble. Mike slept through it all and Christine was not badly disturbed - helped by a cup of camomile tea at one point!

Next morning we moved away from Broad Street basin as soon as possible but only about 100m around the corner to the overnight mooring just above the locks. We had planned to go to the parish church at 11 o'clock but we found via A Church near You and the parish's own website that it was to be Civic Service - so we decided that we were not respectable enough for all that pomp and ceremony!

Instead we relaxed - it was bright and sunny, pleasantly warm and not too noisy, although the main ring road is only metres away. Doing some writing, emails and mending the chimney as well as reading, the time passed remarkably quickly. We had lunch and befroe we knew it, it was 1 o'clock.

We set off down the flight, with two other boats now waiting to come down behind us - we had to wait a few minutes for a boat coming up. However, we saw no more of those boats as we quickly left them behind. The first part of the flight was clear and locks set for us - with the occasional help from our friendly BW man who was out keeping the flight free from blockages and water shortages.

Half way down and we began to meet a succession of boats coming up - which generally helped - including a hotel pair. The racecourse appeared in sight after the Alstom train works and then, one minute over three hours, our boat was moving out of the bottom lock!

It was only a few minutes up to the moorings at Autherley Junction, opposite the boat yard where we are booked in first thing to have a new window light fitted. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the summer sunshine - trying not to worry if the forecast for tomorrow is still rain!