On to Stone in glorious weather

As I’ve said before, the great thing about living aboard so as to boat all the time is that, when the good weather arrives, there you are, boating in it. This was definitely the case today; glorious sunshine, almost no wind to speak of*, and a steady bit of boating along a route we know well.

As yesterday, we set off at eight and arrived at the top of Stoke locks just after nine. Some were with us, and some against us, forming no logical pattern that we could see, this being the usual state of affairs on this flight. Some of the locks have leaking top gates and are full when you expect them to be empty, and some have leaking bottom gates and are empty when the logic of the passing traffic says they should be full.

The only untoward incident came in the fourth one down, the one with a railway bridge across the tail. Sanity Again was sinking uneventfully down the emptying lock when she decided to roll over onto her starboard side. There was no sign of any obstruction, and Sheila just had time to sound the horn to attract my attention to the situation when the boat rolled back and carried on down as if nothing had happened.

No damage done; a folding chair fell over inside, and one porthole doily fell out, but that’s all. As before in such situations, the solid construction of doors and drawers meant that nothing flew open or fell out.

Sheila was shaken, but carried on.We stopped for lunch at Barlaston, then plodded on down the Meaford flight to tie at the top of Stone, opposite Roger Fuller’s yard. We’ve done a bit of shopping, and plan to carry on to Great Haywood in the morning.

*Note for John Campbell: the Gaviscon helps.