Spring's in the air

Despite a rather grey and murky start this morning, it's been really springlike today, especially this afternoon. We set off just after eight and worked steadily north and west, through Colwich, Great Haywood, Hoo Mill and Weston Locks, being followed up all of them by Ownashare boat Shearwater, who was heading for Chester via Harecastle Tunnel and Heartbreak Hill.

Sheila was lockwheeling, and found it quite hard work; it'll be a few days before we get our boating muscles properly in trim. She ran a washload as we went, and nipped off at Great Haywood to get me a paper.

Apart from a large collection of hippy hutches on the moorings overlooking Shugborough Hall, there's not a lot of moored boats about. We had no trouble getting in here at Weston, the only other boat here being Grey Nomad. There's a steady flow of moving boats, though, mostly shared ownership.

When we first stopped, just before twelve, it was too damp out to be worth rigging the whirligig dryer, so Sheila put the rack up in the well deck and we dropped the cratch cover, leaving the bow doors open. This way, the warmth from the stove rises into the cratch and dries the clothes. This afternoon has seen a big improvement weatherwise, so the whirligig is out there now.

Phone signals are a bit iffy here; we've got a just-about Voda signal, ditto the 3 connection, and the modem has chosen to connect to Orange, but one way or another we're getting by.

Tomorrow, we go on to Stone, and may spend two nights there as we're a bit ahead of ourselves; Stone is the best place on this route to catch up with shopping and the like.