Oh look, it's Tixall again

I must try not to keep starting these posts with what a good day it's been, but it's hard not to when it has. We'd estimated two and a half hours or a bit less to Tixall, which gives a bit of a dilemma. At a busy time of year, you don't want to get there too soon, so as to have a decent chance of finding a mooring. On the other hand, you want to arrive at Colwich before the fleets do. In the end, we set off at half seven, and that turned out just right.

Sheila was steering on a superb day. I pottered about, doing lookout when needed, setting up the various charging items and generally admiring the scenery in the sun. The calorifier was just about hot enough to start the washing machine as we got through Wolverley Bridge, so I scuttered to and fro filling the machine with jugs full from the bathroom. I got it done in nice time to work Colwich.

We were the first boat there, probably, but had two behind us as we arrived and another turned up above as Sanity Again rose in the lock. The washing machine had just started rinsing as we got near the carriage bridge where I hopped off to work Haywood Lock. I had to work a single hander up first, a guy we know from Mercia where he winter moors, then I saw our own boat up. Staying on the towpath, I checked that all was clear at the junction and gave the good word to Sheila, who judged the turn exactly, making it round in one without any reverse or tiller pumping.

OK, it was a flat calm, but it still looked pretty impressive. There was no one to see, naturally. We had a good choice of mooring positions on the Wide, so took our favourite just at the Haywood end. We've tied behind Pondasher, formerly Beech No.3, Braidbar number 72 – just six boats before the first Sanity. We had a quiet time up to lunch, then walked to the Farm Shop for a lettuce and some duck eggs, two of which are boiling at the moment to go with prawns and salad for dinner. Sheila also bought a cyclamen plant to replace one of the geraniums which has died on us.

An email from Susan and a phone call from Martin on Ice Breaker told us that the Deeps are very busy at Poynton just now, partly because the Cheshire Ring is blocked on the Bridgewater whilst they demolish a dangerous warehouse at Hulme Road; people are going to Marple and turning back. The stoppage should be over by the end of this month, as will the school holidays, so hopefully the log jam will have cleared a bit before we need a lot of mooring space for the boats visiting the Owners' Weekend.

Hope so, anyway.

Tomorrow, a longish run by our standards to Burston, just beyond Sandon. Today's washing has dried nicely on the whirligig, so we'll run another load on the way.