Weston upon Trent

We ended up a couple of miles beyond our daily target today as were finding trouble finding a suitable mooring.   Just put it in the bank for another day.   We were doing quite well to start off.  We needed a supermarket stop and Tesco at Rugeley is a good bet.  The question is always will we be able to find a mooring nearby.   Pat had the bright idea of getting me to set her down early so she could walk along and feed back.  If there were to be nothing nearer, at least she would know where I was and a phone call would get her help.  As luck would have it, there was a space right by the bridge, so I moved the boat there and in no time at all she had returned and we were off again.   A bit further on the canal does a sharp right to cross the River Trent on an aqueduct.   Stupidly I got too close to the inside bank for the turn and fell victim to bank effect which basically kills the turn and make me head for the opposite bank which in this case was right in front of a hire boat coming the other way.   No harm done but very bad helmsmanship.   Bank effect happens when the boat is near to the bank, when the propeller is doing its job sucking water from under the boat to push it out the back.   Because the boat is near the bank there is less water available on that side and so a pressure differential builds up effectively sucking the stern onto the bank.   Further on, just past Little Haywood bridge there is a line of moorings on the left hand side in a right hand curve and the inevitable bushes from behind which an opposite direction boat appeared.  I had no option but to go into the bush with no clear way for us to pass.  This boat waved me on but it would have been a lengthy process to extricate the boat so gave him the right of way.  As he passed, his propeller suction neatly removed my bow from the bush no problem.   Haywood lock had no queue, and at the junction Pat managed to offload some rubbish in spite of the wharf being occupied with boats wanting, it would appear, water.   Our lunch changed at Hoo Mill Lock finding ourselves at the back of a 3 boat queue seeming to take ages to move on.  Behind us the local trip boat arrived, and bearing in mind the economics of this, we let then go first.  A very impressive traditional boat with the hold turned over to restaurant dining - fish & chips and cream teas.   Simple but the patrons looked very happy.    We were meant to moor (according to the computer planner) at Ingestre Bridge but all the moorings were taken and we had to press on, through Weston Lock before finding a vacant spot.   14:10, later than usual and everything seems to have gone quiet.