So we left it until there was no-one about, cruised to the lock and filled with water before descending.
Below the lock was moored a couple who make fenders, I can’t remember the name of the boat though. Anyway, I pulled alongside and bought a new bow vee button. Our old one is pretty battered after nearly 13 years…
Then we motored on out of the village, mooring a couple of hundred yards short of Longton Lock.
On Sunday morning we had a phone call from George and Carol, wanting to know where we were, the result of which was that we had an unexpected visit from them as they were passing, heading back down to the Thames and Still Rockin’.
We had a pleasant couple of hours catching up before they had to head off south. But we should be seeing them again next week, looking forward to that.
Sunday afternoon and Monday morning I got the old bow fender off and the paintwork underneath repaired. I had to cut off three or four of the rusty shackles, but luckily I keep several spares in my bits box.
That done I made some brackets to mount the life ring on the swan’s neck, rather than have it up against the cratch board where it’s been for a year or two.
I knew that scrap aluminium would come in for something… Just got to get some paint on, now.
Yesterday we set off northward, with four locks to drop down before mooring near the Stafford Boat Club moorings. It was a fine day, mainly overcast but with short sunny periods. Quite pleasant for cruising, not too hot.
Dropping down Longton Lock…
…and bedding in the new fender!
The locks come about 20 minutes apart for a start, Park Gate Lock, after passing under the M6 and leaving it off to the west, is just after the Bourne Boatbuilders yard.
Coming out for a spot of work.
We met a boat coming up at each of the last three locks. After Shutt Hill the canal passes alongside the dormitory village of Acton Trussle, with the parish church sitting in splendid isolation to the south.
In the summer the villages of Bednall and Acton Trussle host a hoard of visiting scarecrows, displayed to raise money for charity and part of their presentation for the best Kept Village award.
There are lots more up in the village…
Leaving the village behind we passed the stretch of piling we often use, turned the corner and arrived at Deptford Lock just in time to take advantage of a boat leaving. And with three more waiting below I was able to get back aboard after lifting a paddle to drain the chamber.
We pulled in on the straight below the lock, a pleasantly quite mooring.
I dumped my pictures off the camera onto the laptop, then shut it down to get some dinner sorted out. On restarting it I didn’t have a keyboard, after an hour of fannying about I got that working again but now had lost my USB ports.
It’s taken me most of last night and today, but I’ve got everything working again, requiring a full reset and installation of Windows, replacing the corrupted registry entries and all the drivers.
I’m working on a basic configuration at the moment, just enough software installed to be able to write and securely upload the blog. I’ll get on with the rest as and when the need arises. It’s a lot faster though, without all the clutter…
Locks 5, miles 6¾
2 comments:
So Geoff, where does the bike go now, or has it been deleted from Sayella’s inventory !
Hi Ray, hope you're well. John Sage, the trusty and rusty bicycle, is now domiciled on the roof. I took the frame off the counter to do the tunnel bands, and never got around to putting it back!
Post a Comment