Friday 13th April 2012 to Sunday 15th April 2012
An early dash from work on the Friday allowed us to get to the boat in good time to be able to pull out of the marina and moor at Weston just before dark. A quiet trip as there were very few boats out.
On Saturday morning I was forced to deploy one of my "dog shit" signs in the hope that it embarrasses dog owners to be more responsible! We departed and were able to lock up through Sandon Lock and Elaine stayed at the Lock while I travelled the 100yards up to the winding hole and was able to return to the lock to drop down on the same water that had lifted us up! (often we need to queue in both directions for this lock).
My crusade to tidy up the towpath!
We moored just north of the Salt Bridge and walked into Salt to have a very relaxed and, as usual, fantastic meal at The Hollybush (the oldest pub in Stafforshire!)
The Hollybush at Salt
On returning to the boat a fender seller had moored up next to us and I took the opportunity to buy a set of six rope fenders for £25. A bargain! A few replacement fenders never go amiss! The chap was heading towards Stone to be blacked, and I guess financing his maintenance works as he travelled.
We moved on back to Weston for the evening to put some distance between us and the adjacent railway line.
At Weston, while I pottered around the boat I discovered the batteries needed topping up (it seems checking them regularly didn't result in a top-up ever being required - that is until you don't check them and they are then instantly embarrassingly low!!!!). The top-up would need to be sorted as soon as we get back to the marina and obtain the necessary distiller water.
Sunday morning was a reasonably early start back to the marina and a trip to Halfords at Stafford was in order to procure the battery top-up! We couldn't decide how much was needed so we bought both a 5ltr bottle and a 1ltr bottle! Within 40 minutes Of arriving back at the marina we discovered we needed even more!!! In total the batteries took 7ltrs of distiller water!!!!
Dropping down in Weston Lock on the way back to Great Haywood
It was late by the time we left the marina, with our fingers crossed hoping there was no lasting damage to the batteries, finally arriving home at 10pm.
It had been a great weekend!
It would be while before we return to the boat as Elaine's daughter, Danielle, was in the process of moving to Perth, Western Australia and she would need our help preparing for the move!
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
