Shopping at Midland Chandlers, then to Penkridge

13th & 14th June

Yesterday we made an early start, winding in the Wide at 7.30 and going back to Great Haywood for water and to dump rubbish. Whilst Sheila kept an eye on that, I nipped into the village to buy a paper and some bread. I got back to Sanity before the tank was full, then we set off again through the elegant junction bridge and across the Wide once more.

There was evidence of traffic starting up, and we had to queue briefly at Tixall Lock. The wait was enlivened by the German Shepherd dog on the boat in front taking exception to its owner feeding bread through the side hatch to a pair of swans and their cygnets. The dog, barking wildly, stuck its head out of the hatch, whereupon it got well pecked by one of the swans and retreated in some confusion.

In rather cool conditions we carried on along the Staffs and Worcs, passing the large well kempt garden just before the Sow Aqueduct. Sheila went to the bow to keep an eye out for boats approaching the narrow aqueduct from the other end, but was not, in the event, needed. This was just as well, as she was totally distracted by a buzzard which emerged from the woodland on the off side, flew over her head and perched in a tree overhanging the towpath, from where it observed us passing by.

Sheila tried to draw my attention to this, but since I hadn't seen the bird at all, being quite preoccupied with steering the boat round the tight bend and into the trough of the aqueduct, I had no idea what she was on about. Since it seemed unlikely that boats were approaching at head height out of the trees, I took no notice, and had to be enlightened rather later.

There followed the plod past Stafford. It's not at all unpleasant; the northern end of the Staffs and Worcs is by no means its most picturesque section, but still highly enjoyable – just a pity the cold wind had us huddling in our fleeces.

As expected, it was extremely busy past Stafford Boat Club, with boats moored along both sides of the cut, two deep in places. This confirmed the wisdom of our choosing to pay to use Otherton Boat Haven next week, rather than trying to find a space amongst all these at SBC.

There was a serious queue at Deptmore Lock, two waiting below and more than that above as we got there. Sheila took advantage of the towpath telegraph to discover that the latch has been replaced on Great Haywood Lock, not that we've had any thanks from BW for drawing it to their attention.

We stopped a bit short of Acton Trussell village – there's a lot of useable Armco on the run in, and it's quieter than being actually in the village. At least it would have been had we not found a bit that was not only rather shallow, but had a lump of rock in it, by the sound of the grinding noise that echoed through the boat every time another one went past.

There was a good internet connection, however, and I spent a bit of time researching mobile phones. Vodafone had cold called me the other day to remind me that I was eligible for an upgrade. I thanked them politely, but declined for the time being.

It looks as if our low usage means that we could do better elsewhere, possibly even on PAYG. Since our Voda contract doesn't actually expire until the end of August, we've got a bit of time to suss out the options.

I also used the fast connection to tweak this blog site: I've updated the cruising plan bit, and added a short blog roll, concentrating on the canal related blogs that get updated reasonably regularly and which I particularly like reading. Lots of folks seem to go for all inclusive lists, but these for me are less helpful than a shorter list of more active blogs.

Today we set off in fairly leisurely fashion, as we wanted to arrive at Park Gate Lock at Teddesley in time to shop at Midland Chandlers. This worked quite well, although Sheila's enthusiasm to start boating meant that we got there just a little early. No matter, we went in as soon as they were open and bought two shafts, one a 14 foot boat pole and the other a broom handle to replace the one on our steel boat hook, which broke the other day whilst being used to clear nettles from the path at Tamworth.

We marched these back to the boat, stowed them inside until we could treat them, and went on to a mooring below Longford Lock, just short of Penkridge. There is plenty of mooring in Penkridge itself, of course, but a) we're not in a hurry, as we don't want to be at Otherton, just the far side of Penkridge, until Monday afternoon, and b) it's a Saturday night, and I suspect even sedate Penkridge might be just a tad noisy in the middle on a fine summer's weekend evening.

There's a path from here onto Teddesley Road, along which 10 to 15 minutes walk takes you into the centre. I duly did this to buy a paper and some pasties and bread from Jaspers, the excellent baker.

Back at the boat, it lacked half an hour to lunch, so we took some time to search for the sandpaper which we both remembered stowing somewhere on the boat. The plan was for Sheila to rub down the existing deck furniture whilst I fitted the new handle to the boat hook.

The sandpaper was nowhere to be found, so one up to benign senile forgetfulness. I fixed the boat hook anyway, and we had lunch. Afterwards a first coat of Cuprinol was applied to the new stuff – the rest will have to wait until we get some more sandpaper.

Then it was a case of sitting out enjoying the sunny intervals and the variety of performances of boats working up and down the lock. In due course a second coat was applied to the wood, and I further improved the shining hour by cutting Sheila's hair.

Tomorrow we'll stay put, I reckon, before working up the last locks into Penkridge, pumping out at the sanitary station, and finally going into the Boat Haven (so much nicer sounding than 'marina'). I'll do another blog post then, and maybe try setting up a scheduled post for Wednesday, so that regular readers can still get their fix (see how I look after you, Greygal?) without me worrying about tearing myself away from the festivities at Lincoln to do it.