Wednesday 3rd May

Today started very well, we made good progress, starting at 7am aiming
to visit Coventry by lunchtime.  The weather was the best so far, with
temperatures reaching 22 degrees.

However, on the outskirts of Coventry we hit our first technical snag.

Our captain reported that our engine seemed to have lost power and
was stalling every time he tried to reverse.  We moored up and removed
the weedhatch, as we suspected that our propellor was fouled.

This was indeed in the case and the problem was that no-one really wanted
to stick their arm a foot or so into disease-ridden canal water to investigate.
There was also the small matter of what manner of unpleasantness might be
wrapped around the prop shaft - some of the things we had seen floating
past earlier were less than savoury!

Eventually a volunteer was selected and Dave stood in the engine compartment
and lunged his arm into the water.  At first a few handfulls of plastic
carrier bags came out, with occassional bits of rope and rubber O-rings.
Eventually large chunks of foam mattress emerged and we were down to
the serious stuff.  The breadknife was called for and after only a little
more swearing the propeller was free and we sailed cautiously into Coventry.

Coventry's Canal Basin is undergoing considerable refurbishment at the moment
(it also gets trashed by vandals the night after we leave - Ed) but has
no "shore based facilities" yet, so we went in search of a pub with toilets.

Furtunately we found one opposite the basin and discovered excellent Tetleys
at 1.35 per pint and decided to stay.  Some of us ventured into Coventry
itself, where we discovered that the usual shopping centres had largely
replaced the city centre, except for the famous cathederal, which was almost
entirely destroyed in the war; the job having been finished off by architects.

By now it was getting late, so we cooked "spag.bol" in the wharf before
leaving the historic city back up the way we came, up the canal as far
back as Hawkesbury Junction, where the vandals did at least seem to still
be wearing their school ties (I forgot to mention the kids who threw stones
at us on the way out of coventry).

As the sun set, we found we had once again moored next to a pub; this time it
was Marston's Pedigree, so we didnt mind having to pay 1.60 for it!