Monday 21st June
It’s been quite an eventful day one way and another. Firstly, I lied, we are not at Endon at all, but are moored below the locks at Stockton Brook. I don’t know why I thought we would get to Endon first, I knew the reason we had to moor up there last time was because we went past here, up the Stockton locks and couldn’t find any moorings until Endon. My brain is addled.
As indeed it was when I tried to work the Ivy House lift bridge this morning. I couldn’t get the barriers down to block the road and was unable to work out why. It didn’t occur to me that I had to open the control box with my BW key BEFORE I tried to put the barriers down. Obviously if they would go down with the control box locked any Tom, Dick or Harry could get them down and block the road off when they liked for a laugh. What an idiot! It’s not as if I haven’t operated that bridge before! Anyway I was ably assisted by the crew of a Viking Afloat hire boat who were coming the other way and they assumed it was my first time up there. I didn’t disabuse them of that thought!
Previous to this debacle we had to stop in Hanley Park so Ken could clear something off the prop. This turned out to be the material part of an umbrella. Luckily it was just the covering and not the metal spokes as well!
Following those two unfortunate incidents we made our uneventful way to Milton where we decided to take George to the pub. Having got him up the tow path and across the dodgy, busy road, up the street and into the pub garden with no problem we discovered the pub didn’t actually open until 4pm during the week! The return journey was less smooth as George obviously doesn’t understand about pubs being closed when he thinks they are open, and I had to drag him most of the way!
Back on board, finally, we carried on to Stockton Brook. As we were mooring up it was apparent there was something else round the prop. Investigations revealed that this time it was a pair of jogging bottoms! By the time these were extracted it was gone 2pm so to try and avoid further disappointment for our dog I attempted to phone The Sportsman and ascertain if they opened all day or indeed if they were actually open at all. The phone no in the Nicholson’s must have been out of date as I couldn’t get through. Bravely I told George we were going to the pub and off we went again. It was a much longer walk this time and very hot too but he was really keen. Fortunately The Sportsman didn’t let us down, it was open and George even got a special bowl of water with the offer of ice and lemon!
Later on we were relaxing (no that is not a euphemism for having a kip!) when there was an almighty kerfuffle outside the kitchen hatch. I first thought my washing, which was hanging on a rack on the side of the boat, had fallen off but that was further down. I rushed to the hatch just in time to see a man dragging a dog out of the canal. We are moored on a bit of a bend so there is a gap in the middle between the boat and the bank. According to this embarrassed couple their dog had tried to jump in our kitchen hatch but had fallen down the gap into the water! It is quite hazardous living on a boat you know.
