Leia goes for a swim, I lose my phone and men are behaving badly.

We survived the storm, good mooring planning helped as it blew all around us. We did meet a boat on the Meaford flight who advised he had two trees fall on his boat in the last 10 years - now that's unlucky.

There was evidence of damage so it is correct to plan to be away from trees, it's not always the tree itself but more likely a large branch.

Our mooring was beautiful as is the area. We were watched as we left ....

As we approached Aston lock we met Brian and Anne Marie not on Alton but crewing Halsall down to Great Haywood. I took (well paid for) three bags of Excel at a very good price indeed. I paid £12 from the coal boat that comes to Fradley and these were less than £9 quid each !! They were doing good trade at the lock.

The moorings at Stone were solid  - nothing at  all for our size boat, until we went up Star lock and the car park mooring was free. So we had early coffee then into Stone  - what a lot of charity shops ! Sad as they seemed the busiest.

The long line of Stone boats 

Looking back to Star lock  - a good pub where I recall the plans for the Trent and Mersey canal were drawn up 

The Stone locks are deep and wet, good job Percy has a lot to wet before the main cabin.

After shopping we were off up the remaining locks  meeting boaters coming down in most cases.

We ate lunch on the go  - we were hailed as we passed Roger Fullers Yard, someone asking about Tony's boat. A the bottom Meaford lock the sky grew quite dark so we waited on the lock landing while the rain and hail storm passed

I do like the Meaford locks but they are not in great repair with one ground sluice blocked linked to a leaky bottom gate resulted in a very slow filling lock. Plus the top one there was no rubbing plate and an option to snag a front fender if not watching.

We thought we were on the last leg coming through the few bridges leading to Barleston when there was a splash and we both looked back to see Leia swimming to the bank. She has only fell in once before near Tixall. Some how she scrambled to the side and got out. As it always the case there was a boat coming so we stopped and reversed back while she followed our command to sit....

I took the above photo then put my phone in my jeans back pocket that has a rip in it.... we got back going and as we were arriving at Barleston I realised my phone was missing. Fearing the worst Rachel moored up outside the pub and I ran back and found it just by the waters edge - lucky or what!

So we are treating ourselves again tonight  - The Plume of Feathers. I have had good and bad food in here as we frequented it a lot when our share boat was at Etruia. It is now owned by Neil Morrissey  - he has his name on the sign!

So food and an early night as we have a long day tomorrow 

PS the dog stinks !!