Harnser's Travels: Home Mooring 6 April 2016

Thursday, 7 April 2016

Home Mooring 6 April 2016

We set off at 9-15 am in reasonable weather. Almost immediately we passed a field of sheep and lambs with this lamb deciding that he didn’t like laying on wet grass.

At Wharf Cottage, Colton, on the offside of the canal this pair of swans have set up home on the lawn. The Penn sitting on the nest while the cob patrolled the canal but surprisingly unaggressive.

We stopped in Rugeley for a quick bit of shopping both at Tesco and Morrison. A little further on we passed this sorry sight, did the hull leak or was it the stern gland that failed, maybe the bilge pump failed as well. What ever happened it was someone’s pride and joy. Work is ongoing behind the Ash Tree Boat club. They are building 72 houses on 2 sites, one each side of the canal. I wonder what the householders will think of boats permanently moored outside their windows or will the club lose its moorings? We just went under bridge 62 by the water point and the sky’s opened throwing hail down onto us with some force, to say my ears were stinging would be an under statement. Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes but it wasn’t pleasant. From a distance the railings at Armitage tunnel don’t look to bad but when you look closely its probably a waste of good paint. I cant believe this work was carried out by volunteers, all the ones I have met take much more pride in their work.

We passed a moored boat who was worried about getting his generator wet so was running it inside his boat, I wonder if he was a worried about dying from CO poisoning.

I took it nice and slowly round the bend by the church leaving plenty of room for any oncoming boats only to meet one right under bridge 60.

Just passed Armitage Railway Bridge 59A mother duck was taking her new family for a walk along the towpath, I don’t know where the nest was but I would be surprised if the youngsters could have got out of the canal that young. From here it was a steady run back to the marina where following a pump out we put Harnser back on her moorings, had lunch, loaded the car and headed off back home in the sun shine.