We're off!

We said our goodbyes to Steve, Jenny and Dave in the marina, and to fellow moorers Kath, Bob and Ian this morning, and, having filled the water tank, set off for Burton. Sheila made me steer, and I managed for the first time to get out of the tricky marina entrance without touching the towpath opposite. The trick is to lean the side of the boat, quite near the bow, on the bull nose and motor her round until you've got a clear line into the channel.

Sheila worked Haywood Lock, and was menaced by a swan as she came down onto the towpath to take a line from me. It stretched its neck straight up and hissed like a kettle, but embarrassingly for it  slipped on the mud and nearly fell over. I haven't had such a good laugh for ages, it's just a shame Sally wasn't there to see it, as she's seriously unimpressed with swans.

We had a steady chug to Colwich Lock, reopen after its three week stoppage. The bottom gates seem a little better, though the collar on the towpath side gate looks very dodgy, unattached to the heel post and slopping around. I shouldn't be surprised if there's an emergency stoppage there shortly, once the traffic builds up at one of the busiest locks on the system.

The weather was pretty grim, frankly, so we've only come as far as Wolseley Bridge for tonight, and will work our way gently on to Alrewas over the next few days, planning to arrive on Thursday. We need to be in Burton on Monday, but we want to give plenty of time for the river to go down, as it's brimming its banks here at the moment.

So what did we make of Great Haywood Marina?

As always, what follows is my personal view, your mileage may  differ, etc, etc.

First off, and most importantly, we were told before going there that the people were really nice, and that's certainly true. We didn't have a cross word with any of them over four long hard cold months, and Dave and Jenny work really hard to keep the place functioning and smart.

Steve and Mike, the managers, are always helpful and ready to share advice or help with any problems you've got.

Pricewise, I guess the charges are about in the middle of the range, certainly not cheap, but not a complete rip off. As I said early on, on a scale from scruffy to shiny, most of the boats are towards the shiny end, and there are rules about not keeping stuff on the roof, not using whirligig dryers or having very tall TV aerials.

You are not supposed to do major work on your boat, though routine servicing, minor jobs and warranty work is fine. In practice, as we found out, with a bit of economy with the truth, you seem to be able to get away with quite a lot. The boat next to us re-floored his saloon and refitted his galley, including a bit of relining and a lot of tiling, whilst we were there, and eventually we had to complain about the noise and dust.

We were also aware of a boat on another pontoon which seemed to be doing a full fit out on the quiet.

In terms of fuel, you can make any declaration you want for your diesel, Calor Gas is available, but only Taybrite as solid fuel "because the moorers like it". There is the coal yard at Colwich, if you can make contact with the guy (we never managed it) and there's always Anglo Welsh.

The marina design isn't great in terms of manoeuvring around, but not as bad some others in the locality. As I said, the entrance is especially tricky, and why oh why don't they organise the design in so many of these new marinas so that you can diesel and pump out from the main line?

There's no decent chandlery anywhere near, though they will deliver stuff from the chandlery at the sister marina at Tattenhall for free. Unfortunately, there's no web shop for that marina, so you can't easily tell what's available or shop around.

Postal deliveries are firmly discouraged, but the village Post Office does Poste Restante.

Would we go back? Probably, but not next year as we want a change. We'd certainly like to try Tattenhall one of these years.