Wednesday 17th September 2008
Location: Stonefield, Staffordshire, Trent and Mersey Canal
Today: 11 miles, 10 locks. Total distance: 1709 miles. Total locks: 1211
We were up early so pulled the pins at 06:45 and headed down through Stoke to the Stoke flight of five locks. The top lock is deep and the bottom gates are very heavy. Also, the top gate leaks badly and the back deck got soaked.
Talking of leaking gates and getting soaked – one of the locks we came through had a stream of water flowing out through damaged brickwork. There must be a fairly large void behind the chamber wall (photo below). Had the windows or side hatch been open, the inside of the boat would have been flooded.
We were intending to moor up at Barlaston but as it was early when we arrived there we decided to push on a bit further. We finally moored up a couple of miles north of Stone at Stonefield.
We passed nb 4EVERMOOR near the pub at Barlaston, just had time to shout hello to each other in passing – tis a lovely boat (didn’t have time to grab my camera), even nicer looking in the flesh than it is on their blog site.
We met up with a boat canned African Dream just south of Barlaston. The mother, father and son live on the boat. The son (never caught hi name) was an absolute gem in helping us and two other boats down through the Meaford flight of locks. He was flying back and forth between the locks on his bike helping every one through – a real star.
Current Mooring
Very old dry dock at Etruria Junction (centre of picture)
Leaky lock wall - good job side hatch and windows were all closed
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