Quietly towards Stone

3rd & 4th November

It's been a quiet couple of days, not by any means unpleasant, but with comparatively little to report.

Yesterday morning dawned much better than the day before. We didn't want to leave the environs of Great Haywood before Sheila had had a chance to visit the Post Office to collect her Poste Restante package from Elanor. We knew that their own postal delivery wouldn't arrive before ten thirty, so we beguiled the time by finding the geocache The Water is Wide Here, just a bit along the towpath from where we were moored.

Sheila then steered Sanity back to Great Haywood, where we planned to get a pump out from Anglo Welsh. We had to hang around a bit at one end of the lay-by whilst they moved a boat into the paint shed, and then brought Sanity to lie alongside the wharf.

All this went reasonably smoothly. The pump out didn't go so well at the start. The guy asked Sheila to hold the rinse out hose in its deck fitting whilst he used the suction hose to empty the tank. All were a bit surprised when the tank started overflowing through the breather.

It seemed that the rinse water was entering the tank faster than the pump was emptying it. Much examination of the system followed, and eventually it was persuaded to start sucking properly again. No more rinsing was done, unfortunately, so not the best ever pump out we've had, but the tank was certainly largely emptied.

They are always very friendly and helpful at this yard; we checked with them how they were going to implement the new regime for red diesel, and were pleased to be told that they'll be doing it by the book. That is, after filling the tank, the boater will be asked how much of the delivery will be used for propulsion, and the yard will add the extra duty for that amount to the bill.

This seems so straightforward to me, I don't understand why other yards are reported to be planning to insist on supplying fuel only at a rate representing 60% propulsion. For one thing, it will be illegal to do so, and for another, it will lose them a lot of business, especially in the winter when many boats will be like us, doing only a limited amount of movement.

At the moment, for example, although we are well within the continuous cruising guidelines, we are only using 10% of our fuel for propulsion.

By the time we'd pumped out, watered and gone to the Post Office, it was getting on for lunchtime. We'd tied just through the bridge from the water point, so decided to stop there for the night, and move on today.

This we did, setting off on a grey, mild morning which soon came on to mizzle with rain. I worked Hoo Mill and Weston Locks, and we've tied near the decorative bridge across the canal which carries the road to Salt.

There's another geocache nearby, near the Pitt Column, which gave us the excuse to walk up to that memorial. It's a column with an urn on top, and we've often seen it, but this is the first time we've had a reason to visit it.

On the way back, we walked on to look round Salt; it's a charming village, with an interesting looking pub, the Holly Bush.

And that's about it; we've started collecting bits of firewood from locksides and out of the cut, and took a bit of time both yesterday and today to cut some up. Oh, and unusual enterprise of the week: a van with "Dial a Dog Wash" on its side.