Today has been a mixed bag which has got worse as we get nearer the bottom. Graham reversed out of Oozells St. loop with great panache and we moved onto the water point at the top of Farmers Bridge. The tap was so slow that I was emptying the tank, by having my shower, faster than it was filling. We followed a couple of other boats down the flight. The chap in front was half raising a top paddle before his wife had moved the boat out of the lock and before the bottom gate had been closed. Graham questioned why he was doing this and was told that it helped 'flush er out' and then when she bumped anything he could bo€€ock her for fun. As Graham prepared a lock next to a building site, he noticed the builders had an LPG generator running inside the building to boil their kettle. He commented to a couple of the workers about the danger of CO and was shown the missing glass panels where the wrong size windows had been fitted. As Jannock passed through the lock a sliding window was opened and the generator was moved close to it. Ashted tunnel was our next event. The water level was very high which made the tunnel roof low. Despite my best efforts paint was scraped off of about half of the length of the boat. A chap at the southern portal was sawing bits off his cruiser in an attempt to get through. He looked non-plus'd when Graham suggested he lowered the pound level by letting some water out. Then the horrid event at bridge 88E (Small Heath - Acker Trust Basin) where 4 youths who were hiding under the bridge on the non towpath side started pelting the boat with stones. Graham took a picture and they scurried up on top of the bridge and continued shouting abuse and hurling large pebbles at him. Although most of their aiming was rubbish they still inflicted more damage to the paintwork. We have raised a minor crime complaint with West Midlands Police and obtained a reference number so that we can send in the photos he took. We moored for the night in Catherine de Barnes and when Graham got the paint out to start repairing some of the damage it started raining. Let's hope tomorrow is a better day, Hatton in the afternoon. -------------------------- Graham
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