Wednesday 13th
A cold night and the canal was steaming this morning creating a local mist. Not enough to be a problem though. After the usual early start I made Meaford Locks only meeting a boat at the bottom to save me closing gates. From there through Stone there was a lot of traffic affecting all the locks in one way or another either by needing to wait or getting help. Single handing is not difficult but the need to close gates on the downward run can be a niggle, ref: my Bosley experience, so the best help is for someone else to close gates. So I got through Stone quite quickly, but not Aston Lock. There was a three boat queue due to the ground paddle being out of action and upcoming boats were sometimes over cautious when using the gate paddle, by taking this very slowly. The wait took an hour. After that there were no problems. I stopped for the night in the same place as before coming up; just before Br 72 at Little Haywood.
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