Hello Again At Last!

 Sunday 2nd to Friday 7th June 2024 in Stone.

Hallo again! Well, we are finally back on board and looking forward to another summer of cruising the waterways. That is, if summer ever arrives this year...

Not only has this been the latest start we've ever made (normally April or May) but it has been the most disjointed. Long story.

We actually arrived at our marina under sunny skies on Sunday 2nd and unloaded all the bits which had gone home for winter.

Robin spent all of Monday washing and polishing the outside of MM (no small task at a total of 180 feet of boat!) while M busied herself spring cleaning the inside.

On Tuesday, R dashed north to Settle to meet up with his model rail friends; or at least he would have "dashed" if a major accident hadn't caused him to spend one and a half hours stationary on the M6. However, he managed to get there and back in the one day and had a very positive meeting.

Then on Wednesday, we had to drive all the way home to Surrey again (would you believe it?) as there was a local meeting to discuss trying to acquire the Parish Hall which is right next door to our house and is in daily use as a community facility. The church is putting the hall up for sale but has seriously underestimated the strength of local feeling. It was a very lively and well attended meeting, so well worth our while going back but it did mean that it was Friday before we actually left the marina.

This is Lock 26 just outside the marina and our first lock of the season - at last.

Our original plan had been to go north as our destination this year is Liverpool again but a lock at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent was closed for emergency repair so that route was closed to us. However, we had promised our friends Debbie and George, who live at Trentham, a day on MM, so we decided to go north as far as Trentham to pick them up and then bring them south back to the marina. After that we could go clockwise round the Four Counties Ring to get to the north  by the pretty way! While it is a longer way round, we always like cruising on the Shropshire Union Canal and the Middlewich Arm, so it's not a problem and we have lots of time to get to the north.

Mooring on Friday night was outside the large M&S Food Hall in Stone. Perfect for shopping and also breakfast!

Today: 1 mile, 1 lock and 2.1 hours (including winter running).