Tixall Wide

Engine and heater in the morning, then walked up to the Canalside Café for lunch. In the afternoon I put another good coat of varnish on the stern rail.

0 miles, 2.5 engine hours

Tixall Wide

SG down to about 55 in the morning. Ran Webasto and the engine for 2.5 hours from 8 a.m. Afternoon sun meant batteries should be fine tonight.

Rubbed down the first right hand section of the stern rail mostly to wood, because applying the new varnish was giving problems. Put a coat all around the top and inside edge, and the outer part of the problem section.

0 miles, 2.5 engine hours

Tixall Wide

Rubbed down the rail with 320 grade paper and applied another coat of varnish. There didn't seem to be anything in the air when I did it, though I could see a fair bit of flotsam in the sun's rays later. When I checked late afternoon there were some bursting bubbles, almost as if there had been moisture which them evaporated. Have to leave tomorrow's coat until the sun has been on it for a while.

Ran the engine for a while because the sun is getting weaker. Home-made soup and bread for lunch!

0 miles, 1.7 engine hours

Little Haywood to Tixall Wide

Set out mid-morning to come up Haywood lock. Tied up briefly just above the lock so I could check the Post Office for Keith Wilson's package. Still no sign of it. Took on water at the junction – good pressure. Then reversed to go down the S&W. Tied up LHS to the bank to get the windows on that side cleaned, before turning so the hatch faces outwards.

Bought 2x20Kg bags of Supertherm from Halsall @ 9.25 a bag – slightly cheaper than the marina's price. Had some conversations with Harworth Heating about the washers between the air conductor and the glass. One of their exploded diagrams shows them, while the other one doesn't. They have never sold any, and their fitter doesn't think they matter. So we left it at that.

Rubbed down the back rail and put on a coat of varnish.

1 mile, 1 lock, 1.7 engine hours

Little Haywood

Stayed put. Went for coffee to Shugborough and ended up on a good walk finding the Lanthorn of Demosthenes and climbing up to Hadrian's Arch.

Ran the engine for hot water for an hour in the evening.

0 miles, 1 engine hour.

Fradley to Little Haywood

Ran the engine and the central heating for an hour in the morning.

Nice sunny day for cruising. Since we didn't yet know when Keith Wilson would be coming to Treat Haywood, we decided to push through to within striking distance, just in case. Stopped in Rugeley for some shopping. Wolseley Bridge was pretty full anyway, so we tied up half a mile short of Haywood Bridge, overlooking Shugborough.

11.5 miles, 4 locks, 1 swing bridge, 7.6 engine hours

Hopwas to Fradley

Chilly but dry and sometimes sunny. Set out mid-morning. Uneventful journey and tied up, as before, on the mornings below the swing bridge.

8 miles, 0 locks, 3.4 engine hours

Fazeley to Hopwas

Ran the engine for just over an hour in the morning.

Decided to leave Fazeley when everyone else did, since the sun was shining, against the forecast. Rain came as we neared Hopwas where we had decided to moor. Tied up on the unmarked Armco before the first bridge.

2.7 miles, 0 locks, 2.3 engine hours

Fradley to Fazeley

Set out early as rain was forecast from about 11. Cold but OK. Light rain came as promised, shortly before our arrival. Tied up in Fazeley behind NB Jubilee.

11 miles, 0 locks, 4.3 engine hours

Wolseley Bridge to Fradley

Cold and wet, though not quite the constant rain forecast. Stopped briefly in Rugeley for shopping. Found a good mooring below the swing bridge at Fradley.

10 miles, 3 locks, 1 swing bridge, 4.4 engine hours

Great Haywood to Wolseley Bridge

Very windy. Left marina about 4 p.m. after the rain stopped. Once out, travel was reasonable, but the folded pram-hood side panels blew off the roof at Little Haywood and were lost below the water. Searched for 20 minutes without success, before carrying on to Wolseley Bridge.

2.7 miles, 2 locks, 2 engine hours

Great Haywood

Wasn't as rainy as promised, but no bad thing to have a day in port. Took off the Squirrel's fire door to replace the glass, and went down to Penkridge to purchase the replacement. Decided to fit proper screws as well, though they had only one of the longer ones.

0 miles

Cross Green to Great Haywood

Because of the weather forecast for tomorrow, decided to do more than just half the journey to GH marina today, and ended up doing the whole lot. Cloudy day. Got into some queues at locks, but the journey made more bearable with TMS.

18 miles, 12 locks, 10.1 engine hours

Wheaton Aston to Cross Green

Got away about 7.45 in order to get to Brewood for Café Church. Tied up there just before Bridge 14, where the steps go up to the Bridge Inn car park. Couldn't get nearer than a foot to the back – but I didn't want to stress the gunnel paint anyway.

Café church was good – chatted with Adam and Natalie who were there to talk with the vicar about getting married, and then formed a foursome with them for group discussion during the talk.

Decided not to have lunch in Brewood, and came all the way to Cross Green, tying up just before the Anchor. Perfectly dry, with sun in places. Hope to eat in the Anchor tonight.

10.5 miles, 2 locks, 4.4 engine hours

High Onn to Wheaton Aston

Expecting it to be very rainy but, in the event, it wasn't too bad. Set out early to avoid the worst of the rain, and that turned out to have been a good decision. Tied up just through the bridge in Wheaton Aston. The point was to get within an hour or so of Brewood, fo Sunday morning.

Checked the weed-hatch and greased the drive with silicone grease (nearly 3 years since they did it at Debden Wharf, and it should be an annual event. By then the rain had dried up sufficiently for me to paint with gunnel paint the inside of the hull under the cruiser stern boards, down to the bilge paint line. Just did the left side back to the rear stanchion.

3 miles, 0 locks, 1.3 miles

Shebdon Visitor Moorings to High Onn

Nice day for travel – mostly "sunny intervals". Got a pump-out at Norbury (£20 without blue), filled with water, and then had to walk back over the bridge to buy a new bottle of Blue.

Tied up at High Onn, just after the tow path crosses, in the same mooring as on the outward journey. Put a second coat of gunnel paint down the left side to the rear stanchion, hoping we'll be able to leave it long enough to harden a bit before it gets serious testing in a lock.

Good TV, but very little Three signal this time.

8 miles, 0 locks, 3.8 engine hours

Market Drayton to Shebdon Visitor Moorings

Sunny at 7.30 when we set out, an early start because of the promised rain which duly arrived late morning. Tyrley flight was straightforward. Water at the top was pitiful. Tied up on the ringed moorings above the old Wharf Inn, which is now a private house. Sun came out later, but too late for painting.

7.5 miles, 5 locks, 4.3 engine hours

Audlem to Market Drayton

Sunny day with a nip in the air. Helpful traffic meant we were often going straight in to the locks. 24 lock-miles in about 5 hours is very good going. Back on the mooring in Market Drayton opposite NB Elijah.

6 miles, 18 locks, 5.2 engine hours

Audem – Overwater Marina – Audlem

Grey day with some drizzle. Went down the four remaining locks, taking on water on the way, and on to Overwater Marina for some gunwale paint. 2.5 litres for about £45. Turned there and, back in Audlem, decided to tie up below lock 13, to avoid being in the spot where we had spent the weekend.

Put black undercoat on the left gunwale, between the cabin end and the rear stanchion.

2 miles, 6 locks, 3.2 engine hours

Audlem

Wetter than promised, though dried up later. Fitted the screw cover in the channel of the re-sited window and finally removed the tarpaulin from its position

In the evening went to the folk session in the Shroppie Fly.

0 miles, 2.2 engine hours

Audlem

SG indicate a drop to 65 overnight – may have been precipitated by significant use of the inverter, but it had been on 78 before we went to bed. So we ran both engine and Webasto for an hour in the morning to restore charge and get hot water for showers.

Church at Audlem Methodist. Lunch at the Shroppie Fly. Had to clean more dog-dirt of my trainers after some canine left a fresh deposit just outside the back. Also had to clear our own toilet, where there was a blockage in the pump. Helpful  engineer on the phone advised that it should be possible to clear it with active use of a brush. In the end I used the long-handled paint-roller handle.

Applied epoxy glue to top right-hand corner of the re-sited window to hopefully seal the joint completely.

0 miles, 1 hour engine

Market Drayton to Audlem

Set out just before 8.30 to do the Adderley and Audlem flights. A stream of oncoming traffic made things pretty easy and fast. Tied up on the 48 hour moorings above lock 12, which we had avoided before because of rumours of the shelf. Seems OK and a very nice place to be. Become very sunny and hot and the solar panel is working well at filling the last bit of battery capacity.

Put a second coat of Goldstar varnish on the inner window frame and surround. Curtains can go back up tonight. Also had a go at creating a smoother top external edge with a little more Sikaflex. OK, but proving very difficult to do it neatly.

6 miles, 16 locks, 5.2 engine hours.