It almost went to plan

Thursday 29^th August; bridge 14 to Westport Lake

The grand plan was to be moored up at Etruria by 11.30 for Dave’s expected phone call, but it was so quiet on this mooring that we overslept, and it was well gone 9.30 before we left.  NB Adventurer went by – they intend to visit the Emma Bridgewater factory shop – so we gave them a few minutes to get ahead.

An annoying cruiser was moored at the start of the lift bridge waiting area

Luckily there was enough room for me to get off with the Key of Power at Ivy House lift bridge.  It’s smooth and quite quick, and I only caught 3 cars.  We needed a few bits of shopping, so we moored on the rings before bridge 8, convenient for the Lidl which has appeared since we were last this way.  It was already 10.50, so with insufficient time to get to Etruria in time for the phone call I took the opportunity to pop up to the Emma Bridgewater factory shop as well.  There were the couple from Adventurer paying for their purchases.  I didn’t buy much – even seconds and discontinued ranges are not cheap here – but I did find a birthday present for one of our daughters.

Sweet peas in the Emma Bridgewater garden, some of which were in vases in the ladies’ loo.  All very delightful.

There was even time for a coffee while Dave finished his call before we cruised on down to Hanley Park for a lunch stop.  We were joined by a boat which had suddenly lost power at the bridge, and had pulled back to moor for a trip down the weed hatch.  They extracted a large padded quilt or eiderdown which fortunately didn’t take them very long, and put it, dripping, on the roof for later disposal.

Playtime in the park

We went on down Planet lock, which still has a paddle out of action.  The cover claims the paddle is ‘under repair’ but somehow I doubt this – it’s taking a very long time if it truly is.

We would have been quickly down the staircase, but the transition from top to bottom lock seemed to take forever.  The water levels just would not equalise, well they did in the end, but the bottom gates were leaking so badly it took ages.

Enough leakage to keep the plants lush and happy

We dropped off the rubbish at the service point and turned north up the Trent and Mersey.  We needed to replace a gas bottle, so stopped at Festival Park marina.  When we bought our share in Padworth, in 2006 or thereabouts, this is where we were based for the first couple of years.  The chap who served us remembered it well.  We wondered about topping up the fuel tank but at £1.20 a litre, and no declarations taken (of the proportion used for propulsion versus that for domestic use), we decided to wait till we got back to Aston marina, where we hear it is a good price.  The gas was about £46.  We didn’t want to descend the Stoke locks today, and our plan was to cruise to the Harecastle tunnel, wind, then come back to Westport lake for the night.  It’s easy cruising but it’s still several miles to go.

Stoke Boats – the latest build almost ready to launch

Bottle kiln and derelict works – will they get restored?

It was still before 4 by the time we got to Westport Lake but the moorings were already very crowded.  There was space for us at the far end, so we took it rather than miss the chance completely.  We will have to turn round tomorrow.  Ten minutes later another boat took the remaining space even though his bow was well into the weeds.  We went round the lake with Jess, and Dave just managed to get a Magnum before the ice cream van left the car park, the visitor centre having already closed.  Looking at the rest of the moorings, there weren’t any ‘git gaps’ – the rings just seem to be at the wrong distance for most boats and they were mostly as close to each other as they could reasonably get.

5½ miles, 3 locks