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7th & 8th November

We started yesterday by boating up to the winding hole, which is, of course, the wrong side of the water point if you want to use both. Since all was quiet and calm, Sheila winded first and then reversed onto the water point. There's a small geocache near here, which we discovered whilst waiting for the tank to fill.

We'd decided not to spend another night in Stone, so didn't go back to the 5 day mooring we'd been on, but just pulled forward onto the 48 hour one between the water point and the winding hole.

A last trip to Morrison's brought us up to coffee time, then I walked up the canal to Stone Boat Building, only to find that they hadn't yet had the delivery of oil, nor were they expecting the filter to come in until much later.

When I expressed dismay, the nice lady said not to worry, she'd just hold the filter in stock if I didn't want to wait for it, and meanwhile, why not try Stone Canal Cruising (or, "The Dry Dock" as she called it)? This I did, and after much rummaging they found they had a Beta filter for Sanity's engine, at only a slightly higher price than I'd have paid in a regular chandlery.

Back at the boat, we had an early lunch and set off to head back to Great Haywood, or a bit in that direction, in any event. The weather, which had been very pleasant up until then, began to look a bit gloomy as we approached our previous mooring by Bridge 82.

Sheila thought she'd seen a slightly quieter one on the way up, so we went on past the boats moored on the offside by the railway, and tried to get in on the Armco piling just beyond. This was a complete no-no, with the stern running aground whilst still three feet out, but going on a little further brought us to a good mooring just before the bend, just as the rain began to fall in earnest.

A display of rapid mooring and cratch unrolling was performed for no audience at all, and we retreated below for the duration. It was indeed a better mooring than the one nearer Salt, since the railway has moved away and entered a cutting at that point, so even less disturbance than before.

This morning we made a leisurely start and ambled down the remaining two locks to Great Haywood. The forecast for the rest of the weekend, and indeed for Monday and Tuesday, not being good, we decided to top up the water tank so as to be able to sit it out on Tixall Wide again.

We had to hang around a bit to get the use of one of the taps, which gave me a chance to walk into the village for a paper, and to get the oil I wanted from Anglo Welsh. They had 5 litres of Morris's 15W/40, API CC, but at £19.50, which is a bit steep, but there you go.

Water tank topped up, I managed the turn into the Staffs and Worcs without touching anything, of which I felt quite proud in view of the wind. There are a few boats here, but not many; it is nice to be boating in the quieter times, when you don't spend all your cruising time wondering if you're going to find a mooring at your chosen spot.

After lunch I descaled the kettle, using a pouch of descaler we bought a while ago. It did a half decent job, but left a bit of scale lurking on the bottom. I therefore tried a drop of the LeeSan Toilet Descaler, which they claim to be suitable for jobs like this as well as its main purpose.

Using it neat worked a treat: in fact you could see the scale dissolving as I gently sloshed the stuff round inside the kettle. Full marks for a LeeSan product!

The rest of the afternoon has passed quietly. I've just finished one end of the second tipcat, so hopefully (maybe) I'll get the other end done before we leave here in the middle of next week.