Stone

Well the geese all departed yesterday evening and we didn’t hear them again until gone 9am today.
Boats were on the move before we were about and definitely before we set off at 10am. to  very overcast morning. We met a continuous stream of boats all the way to Aston Lock where there were a queue of 3 waiting to come down, but no one waiting to go up. The bottom gates of Aston lock are leaking very badly and even with both paddles fully drawn its hard to make level at the top, consequently the pound between Aston and Star Lock is down by at least a foot. Of course all the boats that come up Aston lock to visit Stone for the weekend and then go down again the next day doesn’t help matter. It was a slow run from here to Stone, I always like looking at this garden as we pass, a small garden absolutely packed to the edge.

As expected there were several vacant mooring spots below Stone so we carried on to the water point to fill with water, then dropped back to the winding hole, turned and reversed back to the two vacant 48 hr moorings spots between the lock and the winding hole, mooring at the first one we came to ready to retrace our steps tomorrow.

Today’s journey

3½ miles, 1 lock in 2 hours