With a projected 24 hours of rain, we decided to stay put for the day and take it easy on ourselves. I couldn’t help but smile when this friendly doggo poked his face up against the windows, desperately wanting us to play fetch with his stick, dropping it into the front deck for us. Yes…….i completely obliged and think i enjoyed it as much as he did!
First things first before we headed off was to check the weed hatch. This is an inspection hatch in the engine bay that opens and allows access to the propellor and shaft. With so much vegetation cutting and the fact its a shallower canal, its more likely you end up with stuff getting stuck on your prop and causing strain on the engine. Luckily on the 1st stretch of the Stratford i managed to steer around the futon mattress, the bar stool, the shopping trolleys and random floating objects. Today i suspected something as the steering went odd but another quick pull over and check and it was all good.
Going a short distance for today, wanted to get to a little village to do a little food shop. On the way we saw a sign for a bakery and delicatessen at Bridge 20 and figured we’d go check it out. What a great little place where we stocked up on fresh veggies, eggs, bread and Richard treated himself to a homemade pork pie. I went for 2 MASSIVE eccles cakes as a treat.
Found a lovely mooring just in-between bridge 24 & 25 after just 1hr30 of moving. Perfect. The Co-op was a 10 minute walk and then it was lunch and watch the animals with a book for a bit.
There are different mooring styles you can use like mooring pins (long straight pins), chains and piling hooks (like a big nappy pin!). This canal is very friendly for the chains & piling hooks which personally i feel more secure on so win win!
Today’s short video link here: https://youtu.be/pkBCzwmdSHM
That Niggling Thought 
Great post Kate! It sounds like you both had a lovely day on the water 😊 Love the dog visitor too 🐶
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