One boat better than two

Nine week cruise - day 53 - Tuesday 23rd August 2005

Etruria to Ramsdell Hall

At 0800 we moved to the water point at the services and watered up. Used the shower too. David and I cycled round the city centre, stopping off at a pottery, a car showroom, and BBC Radio Stoke for a staff newspaper. And we'd tried so hard to cut ourselves off from the world of work, well, I had anyway. Back to the boat for touching up some paintwork. Looks much better now.

At 1315 we picked up Shadow from the marina and went in convoy to and through Harecastle Tunnel. At 1630 we moored by Kidsgrove station and met Penny, Jemima, Florence, Fergus and Alison. David took the car back to the marina and cycled back; meanwhile Jan and Alison shopped at Tesco.

By 1800ish we were under way again. We turned left onto the Macclesfield Canal, over the T&M via Poole Aqueduct, and moored half an hour past the stop lock. Had spag bol on board Shadow. I decided that it was a lot easier being captain of one boat rather than the two I was now responsible for. This was especially the case when working through narrow locks (wide locks would have been a breeze).

Photos return tomorrow.