Milton to the Hollybush Inn

5.4 miles, 8 locks, 2 lift bridges (manual), 4.5 hours

T&M Trentham lock to Milton Bridge 18

Dry weather. Went past the Etruria junction to get a pump-out (£15 without Blue) at the Festival Park Marina (Black Prince Yard). Stopped for water and lunch at the CRT services by the museum. Then headed up the Caldon – pleasantly surprised by the new housing developments along the early section after Hanley Park.

Milton seemed OK so we tied up there in spite of the warning from the guy at the marina. We were joined by two other boats, and had a safe night.

10.2 miles, 8 locks, 1 lift bridge (auto), 6 hours engine.

Stone to T&M Trentham Lock

Moved Erin Mae to the 48 hour mooring just below Stone's bottom lock, and picked up Peter and Jane at the bus stop outside Morrison's. Lunch when they arrived, then straight on with the journey.

Tried to get a pump-out at Stone Boatbuilders, but the person who does that was "on holiday". Seems it's a truck service, so only one person does it. So we pushed on north and tied up on the moorings just below Trentham lock. No other boats there.

4.5 miles, 8 locks, 3.5 hours engine.

Great Haywood to Stone

Sorted out what we want to leave in the car and got going about 9.30. Weather fine and generally sunny, but still pretty windy. Big hold-up at Weston Lock with someone who allowed a line to foul prop and bottom gates and nearly sank his boat.

Got to Stone mid-afternoon and tied up about 400 yards below the bottom lock.

9.3 miles, 4 locks, 6 hours engine.

Kings Bromley to Great Haywood

With a reasonably early start we made it to Rugeley by coffee time. Very windy, though with sunshine most of the time. Shopping in Rugeley, then stopped off for diesel from Dave Freeman – 88.5 litres. Much more traffic in the afternoon with queues at locks. Home by about 4.30.

12.4 miles, 2 locks, 6 engine hours.

Mercia Marina to Kings Bromley

Longest ever day's cruising – first of the three legs from Mercia to Stone. Mostly ideal weather, with just a touch of drizzle under dark clouds for 10 minutes in the afternoon. Tied up just north of Wood End Lock (20), the stern on Armco with a sprung line, the bows a long way off the bank but held tight with a long line.

16 miles, 14 locks, 8.5 hours engine

Mercia Marina

Three windows re-seated by Aqua (2 bedroom, 1 in the living area). 6½ hours total: 4 for Ian and 2.5 for Lyndon.

Looked at sound insulation in Midland Chandlers. 1000 x 600 panels, self-adhesive, for £35 is a bit cheaper than TW. however, the TW catalogue implies theirs are 5 Kg each, which MC's certainly are not. More research needed.

Bought a padlock for the BBQ, a tin of International Yacht Primer and 10 metres of window tape.

Mercia Marina

Fine day with the wind steadily dropping. Got up late. Walked into Willington in the afternoon.

Watched a new Collingwood (Liverpool) Boats boat being craned from a lorry into the water, and learned that New & Used are agents for them as for Aqualine.

Phoned Wesley windows to chat about possibilities for replacement. They do 75mm, 85mm and 100mm radii. They only supply, don't fit. Aqua's Ian confirmed ChannelGlaze's gripe that Aqualine's Polish window manufacturers simply chose their own (non-standard) radius, so nothing standard is likely to fit.

Mercia Marina

Wet nearly all day long, so work on the windows was not possible. Justin advised us that it would probably be Thursday since they had a busy day planned for Wednesday.

Branston to Mercia Marina

Still cool enough for wet weathers. Set out in time to get to Mercia for a late lunch.

Checked in with the Aqua Boats office, and got a hook-up.

7.9 miles, 2 locks, 3 hours engine.

Kings Bromley to Branston

Weather clearing by lunch-time. Some help from volunteers on the first two Fradley locks.

A boat came far too fast towards us round the corner at the River Trent weir, forcing us against it. We collided pretty heavily with a submerged tree trunk

8.2 miles   12 locks    4.5 hours engine

Great Haywood to Kings Bromley

Got anything redundant into the car. Need to check whether we've got an inflatable mattress on board – can pick it up on our way back in a few days if we've left the only one in the car. Picked up a couple of packages (E-mop) from the PO. Got a card for the new electricity meter from Doug. Zeroed the meter – the reading was 4232 – need to check how that corresponds with the ~£7 that I thought was on the meter.

Stopped at Rugeley for a Morrisons shop. Day was good for travel, though chilly at times.

CanalPlan said to stop at Kings Bromley wharf. Where that was indicated in Nicholson's was horrible bank. There was some Armco a bit earlier which would have done, though rather shady. Eventually tied up on the bollarded section just before Lock 20. Seemed OK since there's virtually no traffic and we'l be away early.

12 miles, 2 locks, 5.5 hours engine.

Great Haywood

New gas cylinder.

GH Marina / SmartGauge

Following yesterday's installation of the solar gear, I connected up the SmartGauge, using 1.5 mm squared 3-core flex from B&Q.  Running the electrics on the batteries tonight to start the synchronisation process.

Took Erin Mae across for a self-operated pump-out once the wind had dropped a little. Only 6 minutes on the pump, and since this was the first one since November it's possible not all the sludge was rinsed out. Engine started and ran sweetly.

Rang RCR to chase up the welcome pack.

De-winterisation

Travelled to GH yesterday (Monday 30th) and went through the boat re-commissioning the water system. Very straightforward, because:

• Keith had pointed out that Jabasco water pumps have hose attachments that click on and off. After emptying the system he had clicked them back in position. I just needed to open the stop cock from the tank.

• After pumping out the calorifier he had screwed the pressure device back in place. All I had to was check it.

Very strong winds were freeing the pram cover window curtain velcro fastenings. Had to get up in the night to roll two of them to stop them thrashing around. Noted in the morning that there is now a small tear in the fabric where the rear curtain was under tension from the wind.

Measured up for the solar panel. Weather was appalling so we came back home today instead of staying an extra day.

Licence

Finally received the BSS certificate from Dave Freeman, and renewed the CRT licence on-line.

Meanwhile Midsummer Energy confirmed that a 6 metre cable run from the panel to the controller should be fine.

BSS Examination

Dave Freeman came over to do the BSS exam. No problems. He also helped ease the position of a cable within the battery compartment to allow the lid to sit properly.

Left the Bambino heater on the frost setting. Put £20 in the meter.

Drove home at midday.

Batteries

Travelled to GH for the BSS examination tomorrow. Called in at Evesham Battery Centre and picked up four new Numax sealed batteries, as promised by Simon. Fitted them on arrival.

Stayed at Travelodge in Rugeley, rather than on Erin Mae. Food at the Ash Tree.

Diesel use

Calculation from Middlewich - Liverpool - Norbury Junction

Liverpool: 100 litres
Norbury Junction: 186.5 litres

Total: 286.5 litres

Engine Hours (09/09/14 - 14/10/14): 127.3
286.5 / 127.3 = 2.25 litres per hour

This seems high, even given that a significant amount was on the River Weaver or broad canals allowing a good cruising speed. Especially because quite a lot was also battery charging. The last check (09/09/14) shows 138 litres for 81 engine hours: = 1.7 litres  / hour – much better.

Engine hours calculation show the Kings Lock Service was done 246 hours after the 1000 hour service last year.

GH Marina

Day for packing up. Washed the roof and sides and polished the left side. Bought a bag of Supatherm from the marina (£12 as against £8.50 from Rennaisance).

Got away about 5.30 and were home by 8.50 or so. Easy run down.