Busily to Stone

We've had a very good day which went pretty well to plan. We made an early start and were queuing for the water point by five to eight. It was very busy but we managed to get sorted within ten minutes or so. Meantime, I had met up with Richard to give him his car park ticket.

The taps are very slow at Great Haywood and there were more boats waiting by the time the tank was barely more than half full, so we settled for a two thirds fill – we'll fill up properly here at Stone when we leave.

Then it was tally ho for points north with Richard and I locking and Sheila steering. The cut was very busy – we had to queue for all the locks and there were boats waiting to come down all of them bar the first, Hoo Mill. In between locks, Richard got a chance to steer whilst at them he took lots of opportunities to talk to the other boaters as usual.

All I'll say about the rebranding is that the new logo looks a lot better in use than it did in isolation. I suspect we'll get used to it in fairly short order.

The weather has improved steadily as the day went on and is now very pleasant indeed. We were a bit anxious about getting a mooring below Star Lock but in the event there was no problem. The 14 day moorings are pretty full, but there was plenty of room on the 5 day and 48 hour ones at half one.

Richard duly went off to catch a train to Stafford from whence he will take a taxi back to Great Haywood. Meanwhile, we've done some shopping and put my prescription in for filling. The Co-op has gone completely, so it's Morrisons or Morrisons here.

Tomorrow, we'll probably work up the flight, filling with water and getting a pump out on the way, and tie again at the top. On Thursday, we'll head on to Barlaston.