Small interlude.......the old mobile phone

I know I said this was going to be a retrospective on my 2007 cruising, but hey what the heck, its my blog....

I was passing an old mobile phone over to a colleague at work when I remembered I had some photographs on it. They turned out to be a few from a trip in late 2006 (remember I said I like out of season cruising)

Sylph was based at Hockly Heath on the North Stratford. We had done the trip to the basin in Stratford in the summer and also taken her to Stockton top* (for her paint job - a one way trip) at the Easter, so this trip was to venture on a new bit of canal - down the Tardebigge flight on the Staffs and Worcester and back.

It was a good cruise, we got held up by a tree down just before Brandwood tunnel. The BW lads were very good. I got stuck in helping. I was just glad they used a hire boat to get access to the tree. By the end it was covered in wood chippings from the chain saws.

On the return journey we (Rachel and myself) did the whole 29 locks in one hit - while the two lazy lads snoozed in their beds. When we got to the top there was a hire boat winding and getting ready to go back down, 58 locks in a day is impressive (isn't it?)

This is a nice shot, taken from the banks of the resovoir looking down on Sylph.

Nev

O yes the * .....................this was the first place I fell in !! We had moored up at Stockton top, and I had done a taxi shuttle to collect the car while Rachel cleaned the boat. Just as I was stepping onto the back of the boat in the marina/boat yard Rachel popped her head out of the back door, just in time to see me miss my footing and lower myself into the canal. I luckily had hold of the rear seat rail but I still went in to my waist. I did struggle to get out - its amazing how 'heavy' you get.

Anyhow......back to the sale of Comet