June 14

The day started nice and blue and then clouded over with some dirty black clouds, but they didn't drop any rain on us.

Around 8:30 we walked with Sue back to the Holly Inn pub where we ate last night. Her taxi back to Anderton was waiting and she was on her way to collect her car from the marina car park and then drive home, another 3.5 hours away.

It seemed strange to have just the two of us rattling around on the boat. We hope that Sue enjoyed her time with us and will be able to join us at Chester for a couple of days. We enjoyed her company and Lynette appreciated learning to operate the locks with her. We found that it took the best part of a week to find all the equipment supplied by Anderton Boats in all the little cupboards and nooks on the boat and to work out household routines.

We passed a moored boat and observed that the owner had done his washing which reminded Lynette that it was time to do our washing and hang it on a washing line we tied on the front of the boat. Sue missed being able to photograph the Kiwi washing routine etc. It made us look like long term water gypsies.

We pottered along down towards Great Haywood and met a bit of traffic as we went along. Obviously the other canal travellers start out later and we had run into those coming towards us. At Great Haywood the Canalside Farm Shop has a wide range of fruit and vegetables, breads, baked goodies, meat and frozen items, of course a little more expensive than a supermarket. There was also a very nice cafe which served meals and takeaway drinks.

We turned South West at Great Haywood, heading to Stratford upon Avon, if we had had enough time. We crossed the aqueduct which went over the River Sow. It was a pleasant afternoon, but the weather was threatening and by 4 PM we stopped, just as the first drops of rain hit us. We ended up just past the Deptmore Lock, just east of Penkridge, probably an hour or two behind our planned schedule, but that's not an issue.

Lynette did a great job working the locks on her own and could even pass on tips to more inexperienced travellers. She came across two boats who had a crew member who had hurt their back. One was racing back to take him to a medical centre. The husband of the other casualty hoped his wife would recover as they had planned to spend the whole of June on the canals.

When we planned this trip, we looked for a circuit where we could take our time and which offered the minimum of canal that we would have to double back on. The Four Counties Ring (FCR), with a side trip to Chester seemed to fit the bill. The FCR is advertised as a circuit that you could do in seven to ten days, and you may be able to with four people opening locks and cruising ten hours a day or more. However, we are taking our time, wandering into interesting places when we come across them, and slowing down to half speed when we come across moored boats or others coming towards us. There's lots of boats moored on the sides of the canals. Bridges also slow us down as they narrow quite a bit and you need to travel slowly so as not to hit them. Many bridges are also low and you have to duck as you pass under them.

Once we had identified where we could go, Jim then built a schedule of what we could realistically do, based on an average cruising speed of three mph and adding quarter of an hour delay for each lock. Then we tried to keep our daily travel time within six to ten hours and we have been pretty close to those times. With our schedule, we have managed to fit in dinner with Collette and Dave and Sue's departure. (Sue may rejoin us, but that's another story. She wouldn't let us phone in to her boss with a sick excuse for her.) The only other critical dates on our schedule are to be in Market Drayton on Wednesday 17 June so that we can wander around the market, and to have the boat back at the marina at 9:00AM on Monday 29 June. The rest of the time will be played by ear.

When we stop at night, we can park up anywhere along the tow path which is not near a bridge or lock. If it's in a town, there may be bollards or rings to tie up to. If there aren't any of those about, we then hammer in 18 inch steel pins a couple of yards in front and behind the bow and stern. We also have clips that can be used on some canal sides where there is galvanised iron shuttering installed.

This boat was steam powered using coal as the fuel. Only one of 11 on the canals.

The engine was 109 years old and was rebuilt and fitted into this boat.

Kiwis aren't the only ones who dry their washing on canal boats.

The building on the right is unusual.  It is all open.  We don't know what it is used for.

We think this is a "folly" built on the whim of the land owner, this one representing something from India or the Middle East.

The aqueduct over the River Sow.  The river is below and the canal on top. 

This permanently moored boat has a ride on mower.  Not sure why.

A Kiwi boat with washing

The high speed railway line was beside the canal.  The railway is isolated from the farms etc with a steel fence.  We've seen this up and down the country.

Stafford Boat Club marina.  This is shaped in a horse shoe.  This was the entry.

The threatening sky in the afternoon.