South of the tunnel

I've said before that long tunnels form psychological boundaries, at least for me. Harecastle certainly does, so that coming south through it makes for a feeling of being on the way home. We got going at around twenty past seven, following another boat to the paired locks, up which we worked in great amity, helping each other out as needed.

I took to going ahead, once Sanity Again was rising in the lock, and setting the next pair so that we fairly zoomed along. When we got to the service wharf, there was a boat using the tap by the pump out cupboard, but they very kindly moved back to make room for us. We'd realised that, as we had a card for CRT pump outs, we didn't need to trouble the folk at Etruria at all.

One word of advice – after you've inserted the card, the light for "card accepted" comes on but nothing else seems to happen, no sound of a pump starting up. Do not panic, just wait until the ready light comes on, just like it tells you, and open the valve on the probe. I'd had a bit of trouble getting the probe to go down into the deck fitting, finally standing on it as usual. This was all fine, but when the tank was empty, I went to pull the probe out and pop it into the water to clear the pipe.

It wouldn't come out.

In the end, it took the two of us to hoick it out, by which time the pump had stopped. It's done a good pump out, however, much better than the one we had, for more money, at Stone the other week.

Off we went again, washing machine chugging away, up the final three locks of the climb. There was one boat waiting at the tunnel portal and we were told we had a forty minute wait to go in. That was no trouble, we got a cup of coffee and hung about, chatting to the other boats waiting. In the event, it was half ten before we were heading in there.

The sand bar has reappeared at the entrance to the tunnel, which gave Sheila a bit of bother getting the bow round and the boat lined up, but once in there, she boated through in fine style.

We got to Westport Lake by half eleven and found plenty of room. Two of the boats which followed us through the tunnel have tied near us. One, Wandering Snail, is crewed by fellow Canal World forumites Peter and Stacey, aka The Biscuits. We've had a good old natter with them and "Bob" off the other boat.

We even talked about toilets for a bit.

Tomorrow, we'll head on down through Stoke to Barlaston.

Back on the Macc

The weather's not been anything to write home about today (oh, hang on...) but perfectly manageable and a lot better than last weekend. We set off at eight and worked up the three locks to the service point, with the aid of a volocky on the middle lock.

Before he turned up, I witnessed one curiosity: a woman from what we later discovered to be a community boatload of members of the Trefoil Guild (what Girl Guides turn into when they ripen) wandered down to this lock as I was setting it. She had an armful of knitted stuffed toys, whom she arranged on one of the bottom balance beams. She then stepped back, got her phone out and took a picture, then gathered them all up again and walked back to her boat, which was tied above the lock.

Once we were sorted on the water point, Sheila was able to start a washload whilst I disposed of our rubbish and recycling. An Andersen boat crewed by three generations of a very pleasant family worked up behind us and tied on the other water point. We ended up following them up the rest of the flight, stopping to natter and exchange info as we went. The father had been to school near the tunnel and had known the Red Bull as his local.

"What was it like?" I asked.

"Rough," he said.

They carried on to the tunnel at the top whilst we made the turn onto the Macc. Sheila got us round with only one burst of reverse – it's a much trickier turn coming from the North than the South. We carried merrily on to Hall Green Stop, worked up it and tied on the visitor moorings above with a little difficulty. They were quite full, but most of the boats have gone now, with the exception of one of the local lurkers.

We've made an expedition to the local Co-op and restocked a bit. Tomorrow, a straightforward cruise to Congleton Aqueduct on what's promised to be a decent day, weatherwise.