Goodness it was cold this morning, but it was also sunny. Macc had another pre-breakfast walk, and was pretty good for most of it. We set off at about 8.45, once he was asleep. We had about 40 minutes before the locks, which we did on diesel to recharge the batteries. Barlaston has one of the houses many boaters fancy, with room not for a pony but two boats. The next section has the railway line very close by.
Adrian decided he’d work Meaford Locks as it’s a nice flight. The top lock needed filling, and seemed to take a while. I switched to electric propulsion, partly because all the waiting time means there’s solar charging going on without anything being used.
The second lock also needed filling as we were following someone down, but but the time we got to the third one we started meeting boats coming up. They were historics, going to the Easter Gathering at Ellesmere Port.
The one we met at the fourth and final lock was built in 1899. The lady working the lock thought it was great that there was such an age difference between the two boats.
Along the next stretch we spotted Firecrest moored up. Eric appeared and walked along with us having a chat. We moored on the rings before Roger Fuller’s yard, and Eric came on board for a coffee, a look round KV, and a chat. After lunch, Adrian walked into Stone to go to the hardware shop where he successfully bought a length of standard hose that we can use at the end of our expandable one instead of the nozzle. This should mean it doesn’t keep popping out and spraying water all over the well deck, and might also mean the filler doesn’t get overwhelmed. He was able to buy a meter off a big roll, plus the attachment. Meanwhile I took Macc for another largely good walk. While it’s been sunny at times this afternoon we’ve also had heavy rain showers and a bit of hail. It’s also been really windy at times, so we’re quite glad we stopped when we did.
3 miles, 4 locks. (33 miles, 23 locks)