Stone

Here I am Rune

Distance 7.1 miles

Total 2628 Locks  122 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3635.4 miles 

My aim today was to get to Stone since I booked myself a blood donor session at Stoke on Trent for the evening (5.20pm) so needed to moor early enough to be able to catch the train from Stone to Stoke to enable me to arrive on time. All went pretty much according to plan. I had some doubts as we passed through the main area of Stone where all the moorings are private, but as we passed out the other side a few mooring became available. We are also comfortably within the distance needed to get to our rendezvous at Standedge Tunnel on 16^th June, we have a few days in hand at the moment.

The one point of interest during the day was passing a waterside animal which could have been a mink, otter or escaped ferret judging by the way that it moved, it would be nice if it were an otter. Tried to photograph it but we were passing another boat at the time so was unable to make a good job of photographing it.

The halfway marker of the Trent and Mersey canal in Stone

Entering Yard Lock under Workhouse Bridge, the 'statue' on the right is a memorial to a murder victim, Christine Collins

Weston on Trent

Here I am Rune

Distance 8 miles

Total 2622 Locks  122 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3628.3 miles 

Once again we have got as far as we needed to today, target was Hoo Mill Lock and we are getting on for 3 miles (and 1 lock) beyond that, so we have effectively done a quarter of tomorrows mileage as well.

With only 3 locks to do it pretty much a case of just admiring the scenery, and some of it (Tixall House Gatehouse) was quite impressive. Had to catch up on a couple of domestic chores today, topped up with water, empty the elsan cassette and put cleaning solution into it, this is the last of the three cassettes to get the treatment.

The target for tomorrow is bridge 92 which is just this side of Stone but I would imagine that we will be reaching Stone itself at the very least.

Tixall Wide

The view to Tixall Gatehouse from Tixall Wide

Tixall Gatehouse

Stafford

Here I am Rune

Distance 8.3 miles

Total 2619 Locks  122 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3620.3 miles 

Today could be described as typical Bank Holiday weather, although not as bad as was originally forecast. The morning was OK but more rain moved in during the afternoon, it was just continuous drizzle rather than a downpour.

The day started off well, I was woken up by the sound of an electric motor unexpectedly running. It turned out that I’d managed to activate the programming on the recently serviced heating, which promptly switched itself on at 7.00am, the weather is warm enough and we didn’t really need it, but once it has switched itself on it needs to run for about 10 or 15 minutes to get up to operating temperature before switching it off again.

Soon after setting off we passed the local hire boat centre and it was obvious that a lot of hirers had taken advantage of the Friday to Monday hire since, although it was deserted when we got here yesterday, all of their hire boats appear to have been returned and the place was rammed this morning.

The trip was OK and we achieved our aim of getting to the outskirts of Stafford, although too late to get to the local shops so will need to get some provisions first thing tomorrow morning.

Gailey

Here I am Rune

Distance 0.3 miles

Total 2609 Locks  122 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3612 miles 

A short trip today, half of which was backwards! The service of the heating was a bit of an ‘ouch’ moment since just servicing would have been about £99, the actual bill came to £573! The problem was the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) had failed, which appears to be the main reason that the unit wouldn’t fire up. On its own the ECU accounted for £301 of the total bill, don’t want to have to buy another one of them in a hurry!

By the time the job was finished it was too late to move on anywhere so we just reversed along to the nearest mooring above Gailey lock, tomorrow, weather permitting, we should be trying to get back to Stafford.

Gailey

Here I am Rune

Distance 8.1 miles

Total 2609 Locks  122 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3611.7 miles 

The weather today went from superb yesterday, to changeable today. It wasn’t too bad other than one minute you’d have sunglasses on and two minutes later full waterproofs. We woke up to heavy rain but fortunately that died out before we moved off. It was a comfortable day’s trip which has brought us to Gailey for the heating service tomorrow morning. Once that is done (assuming all goes well) we turn around and head back where we came from to the Trent and Mersey to continue up towards Stoke on Trent.