Stone

Woke to a lovely morning and set off just before 9-30 and it happened again, just got the front rope off and a boat comes along, thankfully he moored up just a little further along so we weren't sitting on his tail all day. Before we set off I took this shot of Shugborough Hall with its new lake, I wonder what it was like at the worst of the floods?

Gt Hayward is hosting an Easter floating market and the first boat was moored at Iron Bridge and then

they were continuous up to Gt Hayward Junction. Diana jumped ship to visit the Cheese Boat joining me again at the lock. She left me again once through the lock to buy cakes, but they weren’t open that early and I picked her up again at the junction. We met lots of boats but all the locks were still against us. Just below Hoo Mill Lock I noticed this new bridge crossing the Trent and a new access  roadway which came close to the canal further up, first thoughts was HS2 but its too far north.
Its good to see that the Asbo Swan at Weston is alive and well, Diana isn’t kicking but letting himbite her boot rather than her ankle, he means business. He chased us to the bridge. There is a video of him here I shot in 2016. Trip Report 2016.
This must be my favourite bridge on the whole system, I just love all the brick arches.

At Sandon Lock we caught up with the boat ahead, he in turn had caught up with the one ahead of him, its the first queue for a lock we have been in. There was a tremendous amount of water coming out through the bywash so hopefully we will have no problem with levels.

As we approached Aston Lock I could see three of them queued waiting but we turned into Aston Marina to fill with diesel at a reasonable £1-04 domestic. At the moment I burn 10 to 11 Lts per day heating, cooking and the engine. The marina has two access points from the canal so they have a one way system, in at the North end and out at the South so we did a complete loop.

When we got back on the canal the three boats had gone up but there were two moor now waiting. As we left the lock I saw these stop planks that someone has added to.

As we approached the Stone moorings there was a boat half adrift across the cut, as I pulled in to retrieve it some passes dragged it back to the bank, turned out two of them were boaters moored on the visitor moorings. We pulled into the first vacant spot expecting Stone to be packed out, but when Diana walked into town she reported loads of room above Star Lock and also between the water point and the winding hole. Trouble is, if you go up Star Lock and there is no room its a long way before you can moor anywhere.

Today’s Journey

10½ miles, 5 locks in5½ hours.