Gailey to Great Haywood

Captains Log


Canal Date                             17th May 2011
Travels                                    12 miles –10 Locks
Canal                                      Staffs & Worcester / Trent & Mersey
Current Location                  Great Haywood
The canal was just about as busy as I have ever encountered before. There were boats coming towards us every other minute. Many of the approaching boaters passed comment about a boat & butty ahead who was a bit slow in the locks. There were not wrong, we caught them up at Penkridge. It took them over 45 minutes to get through one locks. By this time there were a queue of boats in each direction! Luckily, they were not going any further so they did not slow us after that. We called it to Midland chandlers at Penkridge for the spare impeller for the shower pump. Luckily they did have one in stock. We then soon came across Tixal Wide. It is much more like a lake than any canal. Pity they are not all like that. We moored for the night at Great Haywood on the Trent & Mersey Canal. As I was securing the boat and sorting out the fenders I managed to knock the nice new shiney chimney overboard. My heart sank with the sight of the chimney sinking. It is held on a piece of steel rope to stop such a thing happening but the rope had rotted through! Not a problem, I saw where it went in, I will retrieve it with my trusty magnet. Now their are 2 types of stainless steel, one is magnetic, the other is not. Mine is very much the “is not” verity. I groped around with the boat hook for some time. I could feel it but not hook it. Pam then tried with a landing net, she could feel it until the moment that the landing net fell apart.


There was nothing else left in our recovery arsenal so it was down to me. Now before I get myself wet in the cut I am going to be curtain that I can have a shower after. I spent the next hour repairing the shower pump with the kit that I had brought an hour ago. Once that was done and tested I stepped over and quickly found the remains of the net. Not long after I came across the chimney. With everything recovered I had a well deserved shower and then off to the local pub for a pub lunch and a beer or three.