Friday 29 May 2015

A cruising we will go...

We met our cruising partners Kevin and Carol over at the Crick Boat Show and made final plans for our cruising schedule for this season. We will meet at Fazeley Junction on Monday and head south towards London with time at Stratford and Little Venice in London. A cruise along the Kennett and Avon to Bath and back is also in order.

On Tuesday, after picking up the cushions for the bow lockers, we headed off down the Stoke locks towards Stone. It was good to be moving along the cut again after nearly a week in the marina. As we cruised Rachael and I discussed the merits of living in a marina on a permanent basis. I know a lot of people do it, going cruising for just a few weeks a year, but I can't say it would be our cup of tea.

I thought things were reasonably quiet on the cut until we got to just out of Stone where we arrived as boat number seven in the queue to go through this lock. Turns out there was another seven or eight boats ahead of us, already through the lock, from a cruising club. Chatting with some people from one of the boats, I found out they were turning off at Great Heywood Junction on to The Staffs and Worcs Canal, we were continuing on. Sounded good to me!


It was a busy day for the first day out with 14 locks negotiated. We managed to moor in Stone just after the last Stone lock. Once the boat was readied for the next day I headed off to Morrison's (for the Aussies...a supermarket) to pick up a few bits and pieces.

First thing the next morning we pulled Serafina back on to the water point to fill the tank.

 

While we waited the local swans swam over with their family thinking they may get breakfast. We had nothing prepared for them in line with the Canal and River Trust request for healthy meals for the wild birds rather than bread. They left as hungry as they came.

 
 
A fair bit of dredging was going on just on the edge of Stone as we headed off. I notice that the CRT are using the dredgings to create a new bank, this was happening for a few miles.


Arriving in Great Haywood, there were only two boats on the 48 hour moorings above Haywood Lock. We took up a prime position in the sunshine to get the most use out of the solar panels we could. A quick call to Dave from Canalcare about fly screens for the boat and an appointment was made for later this afternoon. Once Serafina was locked up we went off to try and fulfill Rachael's perennial pursuit to find a plain scone in England. Me, I love fruit scones of which there seems to be an abundant supply! The Lock House was our first stop but alas, to no avail! We continued on, next stop, the cafe at The Canalside Farm Shop. Still no luck here either but plenty of nice alternatives and a good cuppa were had. While we were here we picked a few things, the pork sausages caught our eye.

While at Stone we received a call from our daughter letting us know they were heading down from Scotland to Heathrow to fly home and were calling in for another night on the boat. We decided to stay an extra night at Great Haywood to make it easier for them to find us. First thing in the morning Dave from Canalcare was at the boat to fit retractable fly screens on the two hatches. He did a great job and they look great too! I'll post a photo of the screens along with the carpenter's work soon.

That afternoon our daughter and her family arrived. We met them at the Clifford Arms pub, not too far from the canal and stepped in for a drink and a catch up. After all the rain we had in Stoke we finally had a nice day for Hollie to do some boating.

Rachael and Hollie closing the lock gate so we can go down Haywood Lock to the lower moorings.


Hollie jumped onboard Serafina after organising the lock under Rachael's direction and helped me take Serafina out of lock and down one hundred metres to the mooring. We traveled a total of four hundred metres.


Once moored the ducks descended upon us and the girls were keen to feed them out of the cratch.



They head off to London Heathrow tomorrow for a night before flying back to Australia. We are heading off towards Fradley Junction where we will turn off the Trent and Mersey Canal and onto the Coventry Canal.

The following link shows our current route: Current cruising route

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