Alrewas to Stone

Captains Log


Canal Date                                 28th July 2011
Travels                                          21 Miles 11 Locks
Current Location               2 miles south of Stone

Monday 16/07/2011
Boat Movement Alrewas to Little Haywood

Miles --- 11,  Locks --- 6

A good day for travelling. The sun is doing its thing, a very gentile breeze. We only have about 10 hours travel left and a week to do it, so no need to rush or have long days. Very relaxed cruising. We set off at 11.30. Fradley was mad. There were boats every where, all waiting for either the locks, facilities or just some where to moor. There were BW Volunteers at the locks, that helped at bit. Once through the 5 locks it was plain sailing for the rest of the day. I have never encountered so many oncoming boats. It is Monday, so the weekenders are not there. It is the start of the school holidays, so that will increase traffic, but I think that most of the traffic is going to the IWA show. We stopped for water just before Hansacre. We had to queue for that. When I had finished there was a queue of 2 or 3 boats waiting. Unheard of!

We travelled on to Rugeley where we stopped for a bit of local food shopping. A pleasant, pedestrianised town centre, not so many charity and closed down shops as many towns.

We continued our trip, it was getting late and surprise, surprise, food time was on mine. After a quick look in the guide book we headed for bridge 20, there is a pub just off that bridge. We found the moorings and almost ran to the pub. Its a good pub, more of a restaurant than a pub. After eating we went back to the boat. No satellite TV, No digital TV and only 1 channel on ordinary TV. We were underneath a canopy of trees, We shall look for better moorings tomorrow.

Teusday
We moved the boat to the other side of the tunnel to a better mooring spot. It is almost completely open, much better and lighter than last night. Would you believe it? There is one small tree and that is blocking all satellite signals!
There is still a lot of traffic in both directions, even more than yesterday Now we are stationary we have noticed that the traffic is in both directions.
We went for a walk around the village. There is a garden centre and a wildlife park. Both very nice.

Thursday 28/07/2011
Boat Movement Little Haywood to Sandon Lock (23) Near Stone
Miles --- 10, Locks --- 5
A fine morning, the traffic on the canal is still very busy. I am not sure if we are just in a very busy spot or the whole world has decided to got and play with their boats on the first week of the school holidays.

We soon arrived at the first lock to find a queue of 4 boats waiting. ¾ of an hour later we were on our way again. The next lock was slightly better with only 2 boats before us. The canal is very busy indeed. It is a good job that we, or for that matter, anyone else is not in a hurry. We wanted to get close to Stone but not in Stone. That will be out task for tomorrow. We found a reasonable mooring just above the lock at Sandon (No 23) and stayed there for the night. The weather has been fine all day and looks like being a warm evening. We are nowhere near a pub so it looks like some good old home cooking for us tonight.