If this weather continues we will be taking on pairs of animals. It rained most of yesterday, while we were waiting for someone to repair the alternator, and it started out raining this morning. When the rain stopped we got the boat moving, but it started raining again. Happily I had full foul weather gear on, and even more happily there was a nice long tunnel to hide in.

The Wast Hill Tunnel is just over one and a half miles long, and takes about half an hour to pass through. It was built at the end of the 18th century, by which time tunnel engineering was a solved problem. It runs dead straight, with no wiggly bits in the middle where the surveyors didn’t get it quite right. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel one and a half miles away, as soon as you enter.

By the time we came out the rain had stopped again. We took a brief pause for lunch and then left the Worcester Canal and turned onto the Stratford Canal. We are on the outer fringes of the Birmingham area now, and the bridges are all tagged with graffiti. There are no locks on today’s route.

Paula took the first shift at the helm after lunch, and then I took over. After a while Paula asked me when we were going to moor up as she was getting cold even in the boat, so we stopped in a leafy cutting, put the chimney back on the boat and lit the fire in the little stove. We have to take the chimney off when moving or it will get knocked off by tree branches or low bridges.

There is more rain forecast for the rest of the week. I think we have room for a pair of sheep in the dinette, but the cows will have to go on the roof.