Day 4 

20 miles: 20 locks: 1 engine problem: 1/2 bottle of Brasso used: Still 8 litres of Pimms!

Tonight we are moored up in Wolverhampton, with the atmospheric backdrop of neon lights, a train line running right by us, lots of graffiti and rubbish in the canal - quite a change from last night's mooring on the Shropshire Union Canal, it was so pretty being surrounded by the leafy trees. On the plus side, the phone signal is excellent and I can publish this post at the correct time! We finished our journey along the Shropshire Union Canal, and went on to the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal. We are now on the Birmingham Canal/general rubbish disposal. We did have a problem with the engine at lunchtime, it was fine when we stopped for lunch but then didn't start. Matthew checked a few bits, tweaked it and tried again and it worked!

I did a really good spring clean with Anthony and Charlotte, using a Milton wash and we also started cleaning all the brass fittings with Brasso. It is amazing, everything is looking so clean and sparkling, we completed cleaning in Anthony and Charlotte's room, the bathroom and corridor. It takes a long time but is very rewarding and takes me back to my Brownie days when we did brass rubbing. I never thought I'd be doing it again, and enjoying it! 

We went though a lot of locks tonight, and I'm really getting the hang of the throttle and how to gauge the movement of the boat - it's a layed reaction to moving the throttle. I can fully appreciate how hard it was to move the Titanic to try to avoid the iceberg!

We are a bit behind schedule, due to the slow progress through the locks yesterday and then the engine problem today; but we should be travelling through Birmingham tomorrow. We will probably be around Banbury on Monday. We hope you are enjoying our news, it"s a great adventure and it"s exciting because we"re travelling to unexplored places.