Wednesday 11th August
We have had a HUGE day today, 10 miles and 6 locks – taking 8 hours. That’s more hours than I used to do when I was at work! There is a planned stoppage for tomorrow at Penkridge Lock. A paddle is broken and BW are going to investigate the extent of the damage tomorrow morning. This could take a couple of hours or a couple of days, so this morning we had to make a decision about whether to get through Penkridge before they closed the lock or not. We had not planned to go that far, we only usually do about 3 hours a day, however, we would need to get water and do the elsan soon and there was no telling how long the stoppage would last for. As there are no facilities between Tixall and Penkridge (where there is a sanitary station) we really had to get there or go back to Anglo Welsh at Great Haywood.
Anyway, we decided to go for it – along with the world and his wife it seemed! At the first lock we were in a queue with 3 boats in front of us. It took about half an hour to get through there. Obviously we were all going the same way so there were queues at all of the next 4 locks but we carried on regardless. Someone had left the paddles open at Deptmore Lock earlier in the day and this left the pound very shallow between there and Shutt Hill Lock. ‘Go straight down the middle’ was the advice – a bit difficult when there is a constant stream of boats coming towards you! We spent a lot of time up the bank grounded at Acton Trussell (I love that name, it sounds like something out of Midsomer Murders!) until we finally went up Shutt Hill Lock after which the water level improved.
We made it through Penkridge Lock at 5-30pm. We had missed lunchtime at the pub and Gin and Tonic time by then, although we had a couple of cans at lunchtime. Ken had a G and T while we were filling up with water at Penkridge Lock! Now we had to find somewhere to moor up for the night. As we came through Filance Bridge we spotted the Family From Hell on their way to the Cross Keys. Luckily all the moorings there were full and we carried on looking. We had been locking up with some really nice people all day and they waved us into a space they had made sure there was room for us to moor up in when we eventually got to Otherton which was very nice of them.
I am hoping for a shorter more relaxing day tomorrow!
