The Sumpners Afloat

26th May to 1st Jun – making our way back to Brinklow

OK. I asked for it. It doesn’t mean I like it! Fickle ? Moi?

Paul retuned the singing-ringing car (if you know, you know!) on Monday morning, while Bruce and I took care of our grocery delivery and we were off. With two extra crew to boot!

Lenny did sterling work on the Stoke flight. It was a good run down and we ended up in our usual leaving Stoke/heading to Stoke nightspot at Barlaston. It had drizzled on and off all day, but rained pretty much all night, which was fine by me. Nobody minds overnight rain.

It was a beautiful morning as we set off on Tuesday but very soon deteriorated, so that by the time we got to the Meaford flight the rain had arrived. And it rained pretty much all day. The going was a bit challenging – water levels were very low on the Meaford flight and we had to do a bit of fiddling to get through. Bruce was on lock duties today and by the time we arrived in Stone it was pelting down. We pulled over for a while and had lunch before leaving again.

A chap at Star Lock warned us that boats were bottoming out and getting stuck in Bridge 92 and he was flushing water down in an attempt to ameliorate that situation. We came out of the,lock and were definitely dragging along the bottom. We also had problems getting through the bridge but made it. Although I do wonder if we have any blacking left on our soleplate! We came though Aston Lock and turned into Aston Marina with a big old sigh of relief.

We went in to Aston for a couple of reasons, the first being to restore the batteries to 100% and reset our SOC, which we had failed to do at Festival Park. We had plugged in to the shoreline but it kept tripping out. When Paul went to enquire he was told that the electricity had been put in a long time ago, when 6 amps was deemed adequate. They do have some newer births with a 15 Amp supply but had no room for us there. Annoying – especially as we’d let the batteries discharge a bit, knowing we’d be topping up during our Marina stay. Fail!

A quick call to Aston and we got booked in – and it was also a good place from which Bruce could get a taxi back to Festival Marina. Win win.

We had a nice evening playing Cribbage. I had spent some time during a prolonged downpour teaching Lenny the finer points of Cribbage – including “one for his nob” – and he picked it up pretty quickly. Bright lad. Bruce, being who he is would not have attained adulthood without learning. My Dad always said that it was a great way to sharpen kids’ mental arithmetic skills and he was so right. I can often add a row of figures quicker in my head than if I use a calculator!

We were sad to say goodbye to them on Wednesday morning, but we’ll be seeing them again in August so not too long. I was looking at photos of their first trip on Old Nick in May 2021. He seems to have grown into a man almost in those 4 years!

After Bruce and Len had gone off in their Uber, back to Festival Park to pick up their car, we did domestics and left the Marina – on 100% SOC! It’s a great spot and we have got to know the proprietor, Nick quite well now. We like it there.

Paul was back to work today, so I moved us on to another of our preferred moorings, where we’d probably stay until Friday morning. There’s nothing that stunning about the mooring it’s just quiet with field views and cows and sheep, rabbits, geese and goslings, ducks and ducklings. What’s not to like?

On Thursday morning, we spotted fellow Ortomariners “Bears Afloat” passing and they stopped for a quick chat. They were off to trade at the Stone Market which is taking place this weekend. We warned them about the low water levels and wished them a successful weekend’s trading.

Kate is a glass artist and has a purpose built workshop on board the boat. You can see (and buy) her work here.

I was entertained by some quite young calves coming down to the water to drink. So cute – and lovely to see them with their mamas.

The day was very much more pleasant than had been forecast, but incredibly blustery in the afternoon. I had planned to sit out on the bank and read but it was just a bit too windy.

We left our lovely spot on Friday morning to make our way down through the locks to Great Haywood Junction. We thought we’d try and have lunch at the Farm Shop Cafe there. We’ve passed it so many times and we’ve either been on a mission to be somewhere or there’d been nowhere to moor. Today was the day! A mooring right outside clinched it.

I was determined to introduce Paul to traditional Staffordshire Oatcakes. Very popular in the Potteries, I’d had them before but he was an oatcake virgin. They are made from oats, flour, yeast and water/milk. They are like a soft pancake – traditionally warmed between two plates over a pan of boiling water. They are more often microwaved these days. They are often filled with the components of a fry-up and are similar in tradition to the French buckwheat galettes – although those are much thinner.

Suffice to say that Paul enjoyed them. We chose bacon and mushroom and sausage and cheese and both felt we had dined well!

Lunch done we stopped to do domestics at the junction and for once – and it was a bit of a wrench – we chose not to moor at Tixall Wide. Instead we went down through 2 more locks – Haywood and Colwich. The paddle at Colwich lock has been repaired recently and so there was none of the queueing we experienced on our outward leg, think goodness. Incidentally – Colwich Lock , as of March 2025, holds the crown for the busiest lock on the system, a crown usually worn by Hillmorton Locks. Hillmorton experienced lower lock usage last year – presumably as a result of the Easenhall Landslide which you may remember us writing about last year?

We eventually moored in a spot that we have moored before, with views of Cannock Chase. It’s pretty near a railway line, but this weekend there are no trains between Stafford and Rugby, so it will be pretty quiet wherever we moor.

We set off in sunshine on Saturday morning after an unusually quiet night. It’s strange without the train noise but rather nice. We had a rendezvous with Tesco in Rugeley, where we had a Click and Collect order to pick up. We found a space within sight of the bridge that leads to the handy Tescos and settled down to wait. We had arrived about an hour early but it soon passed.

Paul set off with sack truck, crates and bags and soon arrived back. My hunter gatherer had done well! We soon had it all stashed away and were off again. A little cloudier, but still warm. We hauled our way through what we always think of as “the Rugeley slog” – made worse today by 2 separate fishing contests – although they were an unusually cheery bunch and mostly happy to engage in banter. I guess it’s because we’ve done the stretch quite a few times, recently. There’s nothing wrong with it, it just seems interminable until we are out in the sticks again.

We amused ourselves with a game of “Rate my Garden” – always entertaining! And it was during this that we found today’s mad garden, pictured below.

We moored at about 15:30 in a favourite spot and immediately went for a quick beepy. We noticed the wind had really got up – blustery again. I wish you could see the view I see over the fields towards the hills beyond. It caught my eye as I was sweeping the deck and almost caught my breath too. The camera just does not do it justice so I won’t bother. But it is very uplifting, I find.

.We made our way down through the 3 locks above Fradley Junction with a queue of 3 boats behind us – clearly we had set off at just the right time! Lucky us. The volunteers were on at the bottom two, so we fairly whistled through. We are always very grateful to the volunteers – and it’s still a bit of a novelty, having boated for so many years without that luxury.

The sun had been in and out all day and by early afternoon it had decided to stay in and we had a shower for the last leg of our journey for this week.

Next week will see me doing a fair bit of solo cruising as I have a luncheon engagement with a dear old mate and we hope to tackle Atherstone Locks next weekend. Once those are out of the way, we shall heave a sigh of relief. Only one (very shallow) lock then stands between us and The Marina of Dreams so we can slow down and relax a bit, thank goodness. And thanks to Bruce and Len for their company and help with the locks at the beginning of the week. Much appreciated.

I’ll just finish this week with a look at our tried and tested dog-nail-clipping routine for reluctant dogs. Ours have black claws so, it’s doubly difficult. Here’s how:

Ingredients

• One Dog
• Two people
• Dog Life Jacket
• Boat Pole or Hook (depending on weight of dog)
• Pair of clippers
• Dog friendly peanut butter
• A styptic pencil – just in case!

METHOD

1. Gather ingredients, then place dog in life jacket
2. Slide dog onto boat pole
3. Person 1 smears palm with peanut butter while person 2 carries out the clipping.
4. Repeat process for any remaining dogs

Period	Miles	Locks
26th May to 1 Jun	34	23
Cumulative 2025	186	106