Rugeley

Here I am Rune

Distance 9.1 miles

Total 528 Locks 17 Tunnels

Running total mileage 815.9 miles

Well now onto the Trent and Mersey Canal and making reasonable progress, over 9 miles today and 3 locks. We actually got further than I was expecting today and have reached Rugeley so are in the shadow of the power station. After as bit of break from doing locks, particularly narrow locks, I’d sort of forgotten the routine a bit. The problem with narrow locks is that there is quite a strong flow within the lock when the paddles are opened and it can’t be held on the engine it needs to be controlled using mooring ropes. I’d sort of forgotten this and on the first lock we went into I’d allowed too much slack on the mooring line which enabled the current to drive the boat into the upper gate a bit harder than I would necessarily have chosen to do. This served as a reminder to put the boat right up against the top gate for future locks so that the boat doesn’t get any momentum to hit the gate. Tomorrow intending to go through Great Haywood (lunch) and on towards Stone.

Fradley Junction