Backing Through the Lock at Stone

Friday 25th September, 2015 back to Stone.
We awoke to a lovely morning at the marina. M, as usual, was up with (or even before!) the sunrise.

After breakfast, R took MM out of her mooring and turned her round, so that we could fill up with water - we normally back her in to make access easier, but the water tank is at the front  -  so she has to be bow-in to fill her up. Then we set off back towards Stone.

Tomorrow, Charles, Emma, Penny and Minnie are coming up for the day by train, so we thought we would take MM back up to Stone, pick them up from the railway station there and then bring them back to Aston for lunch.
This time we had Aston Lock to ourselves. Beside the lock is an old "lengthsman's" hut with Aston Church in the background.

Below is a classic old Staffordshire house, very similar in style to the one that used to be owned by our friends Annie and Paddy in nearby Gnosall.

An unorthodox manoeuvre was necessary at Stone. MM is 60ft long and the canal is only 25ft wide, so there are only certain special places where you can turn around - and we needed to turn round to take Charles and family back to Aston tomorrow. There was one turning place just before the first Stone Lock but the next one would involve going up through four locks, turning and then four locks back down again. So R decided to turn before the lock and then reverse into the lock. R turned MM round and then backed up the couple of hundred yards towards the lock - so far so good.

M set the lock and then R backed MM towards it. Just as they were getting close to the lock there was a fearful gronching noise from the propellor and then the engine stopped dead. R restarted the engine and tried to clear the propellor and just managed to get enough thrust to move very slowly into the lock amid sounds of distress from engine and propellor. As soon as MM was in the lock, R dived down the weed hatch.

M had the help of a very kind gentleman called Andy from a hire boat nb "Adderbury" that had gone through the lock before us. He stayed to help us through the lock while R struggled with the propellor.
The culprit turned out to be a complete mountain bike tyre and the rather shredded remains of its inner tube. The gronching noise was probably from the destruction of the bicycle wheel itself, which must still be down there, maybe with the rest of the bike?

Eventually, we came out of the lock backwards and moored up in the same spot where we were on Wednesday night - and pointing towards Aston, ready for tomorrow.

After all that hassle, R definitely deserved a Costa!

Today: 2 miles, 2 locks (1 backwards!) and 1.5 hours.
Trip: 362 miles, 293 locks and 279.7 hours.